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V  D  .K  K  > 
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THE 


CONDITION    AND     FATE 


ENGLAND. 


"  We  think  it  would  be  a  vast  advantage  to  the  public  in  general,  if 
ingenious  opticians  would  turn  their  attention  to  a  remedy  for  that  long 
sighted  benevolence  which  sweeps  the  distant  horizon  for  objects  of  com- 
passion, but  is  blind  as  a  bat  to  the  wretchedness  and  destitution  abounding 
at  their  own  doors." — Blacfacood. 

"  For  a  people  to  be  free  they  have  only  to  tcitt  it." 


BY   THE    AUTHOR    OF 
"THE    GLORY    AND    SHAME    OF    ENGLAND.1 

IN  TWO  VOLUMES. 
VOL.  L 


NEW-YORK: 
J.  &.  H.  G.  LANGLEY,  57  CHATHAM  STREET. 

MDCCCXLIII. 


Entered,  according  to  act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1842,  by 
C.  EDWARDS  LESTER,  in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court 
of  the  Southern  District  of  New  York. 


STEREOTYPED  BY  SMITH  AND  WRIGHT, 

COR.  FULTON  AND  GOLD  STREETS, 

NKW  YORK. 

CRAIGHEAD,  PRINTER. 


Stack' 
Annex 


5014973 


TO 
HON.  JOHN  C.  SPENCER, 

THE    FRIEND    OF    POPULAR   EDUCATION, 
THESE  VOLUMES  ARE  INSCRIBED 
BY  HIS  HUMBLE  FRIEND, 

THE  AUTHOR. 


ANALYSIS 


VOLUME  I. 

MM 

BOOK  THE  FIRST. — The  Power  and  Magnificence  of  the 

British  Empire,  with  reference  to  the  feudal  age.     -      15 

BOOK  THE   SECOND. — General  Condition  of  the   British 

People  in  past  ages,  then-  Burdens  and  Sufferings.  -      41 

BOOK  THE  THIRD. — The  Present  Condition  of  the  British 

People,  and  the  Burdens  which  Oppress  them.          -      75 

BOOK  THE  FOURTH. — The  same  subject  continued,  includ- 
ing a  short  reply  to  "  The  Fame  and  Glory  of  Eng- 
land Vindicated."  -------  173 

BOOK  THE  FIFTH. — Some  Glances  at  the  Suffering  and 
Crime,  the  Ignorance  and  Degradation  caused  by 
the  Oppressive  Burdens  laid  upon  the  British  People.  235 


PREFACE. 

A  brief  glance  at  the  contents  of  these  volumes 
will  best  explain  the  author's  design. 

BOOK  THE  FIRST. — Embraces  a  view  of  the 
Power  and  Magnificence  of  the  British  Empire, 
with  illustrations  of  the  spirit  of  the  feudal  and 
of  the  modern  age. 

BOOK  THE  SECOND. — The  General  Condition  of 
the  mass  of  the  British  People  in  past  ages — their 
burdens  and  sufferings,  during  centuries  of  unre- 
lieved oppression. 

BOOK  THE  THIRD. — The  injustice — the  wrongs 
— the  oppressive  laws  and  cruel  enactments  under 
which  the  majority  of  the  British  People  are  now 
struggling. 

BOOK  THE  FOURTH. — A  continuation  of  the 
same  subject,  containing  a  reply  to  a  recent  publi- 
cation entitled,  "  The  Fame  and  Glory  of  Eng- 
land Vindicated,"  by  an  anonymous  libeller  of  the 
democratic  institutions  of  the  country,  writing 
over  the  signature  of  "  Libertas." 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

BOOKS  THE  FIFTH  AND  SIXTH. — The  sufferings 
and  crime,  the  ignorance  and  degradation,  which 
have  been  caused  by  these  oppressive  and  un- 
paralleled burdens  laid  upon  the  people. 

BOOK  THE  SEVENTH, — Glances  at  the  woes 
and  the  struggles  of  Ireland,  under  the  tyrannical 
power  of  England,  and  her  only  hope  of  relief. 

BOOK  THE  EIGHTH. — The  feelings  of  the  people 
in  view  of  the  deep  injustice  they  have  so  long 
suffered,  and  their  determination  to  endure  their 
slavery  no  longer. 

BOOK  THE  NINTH. — The  opposition  of  the 
aristocracy  to  the  liberties  of  the  people,  and  their 
determination  still  to  keep  them  in  subjection. 

BOOK  THE  TENTH. — The  progress  of  the  Demo- 
cratic Principle  throughout  the  world,  and  espe- 
cially in  Great  Britain. 

BOOK  THE  ELEVENTH. — The  final  issue  of 
this  conflict — Reform  or  Revolution. 

In  illustrating  and  proving  these  separate  points, 
I  have  paid  no  regard  to  the  criticism  which  might 
be  -made  that  the  work  contains  too  many  extracts, 
for  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  appeal  frequently 
to  unimpeached  authorities  to  defend  the  state- 
ments I  have  made.  In  my  former  work  I  en- 


PREFACE.  IX 

tirely  omitted,  or  only  slightly  referred  to  the  sub- 
jects I  have  here  discussed  at  length. 

The  general  favour  with  which  that  work  was 
received,  I  attributed  to  its  defence  of  that  Demo- 
cratic Principle  on  which  our  Institutions  are 
founded,  and  which  recognizes  man's  right  every- 
where to  freedom  and  self  government.  Works 
defending  this  great  principle  cannot  be  popular 
except  in  a  nation,  where  the  altars  of  freedom  are 
thronged  with  true  hearted  worshippers. 

Some  may  object  that  I  have  dwelt  entirely  on 
the  dark  portions  of  the  picture,  and  hence  have 
not  rendered  England  justice,  or  given  a  correct 
view  of  her  in  her  state  of  blended  good  and  evil. 
I  am  not  insensible  to  the  greatness  or  the  virtues 
of  England,  but  these  are  now  entirely  over- 
shadowed by  the  great  and  growing  evils  that 
present  themselves  to  the  eye  on  every  side,  and 
which  are  alone  to  be  consulted,  by  him  who 
would  know  what  awaits  that  haughty  and  cruel 
government. 

England  is  every  day  becoming  an  object  of 
greater  interest.  Morally  and  politically  she  oc- 
cupies the  centre  of  the  earth.  In  her  fate  is  in- 
volved the  fate  of  many  other  nations.  When 
she  changes  the  world  will  change.  Her  history 


X  PREFACE. 

has  been  unique.  From  a  small  island  she  has  be- 
come an  empire  that  reaches  round  the  world. 
From  every  storm  that  has  swept  the  face  of 
Europe  and  blotted  out  nations,  she  has  emerged 
with  added  strength  and  more  extended  dominion. 

Thus  she  has  gone  on,  augmenting  her  power, 
till  her  Will  has  almost  become  the  Law  of  the 
world.  Does  she  want  the  Indies?  she  takes 
them.  Would  she  humble  China  ?  her  war  ships 
darken  her  coast,  carrying  desolation  to  her  cities. 
Would  Russia  add  Turkey  to  her  dominions? 
she  enters  the  Bosphorus  and  bids  her  retire  to 
her  northern  home.  The  overthrower  of  empires, 
the  dispenser  of  crowns  and  thrones,  she  takes 
and  chains  on  a  lonely  Isle,  and  "  bids  the  world 
breathe  free  again." 

Holding  such  power,  and  sustaining  such  rela- 
tions, and  more  than  all  laying  her  moulding  hand 
on  the  millions  of  half  civilized  men  in  every 
quarter  of  the  globe,  she  must  be  an  object  of  in- 
tense interest  to  every  thoughtful  man.  Seeing 
how  the  fate  of  her  countless  subjects  and  other 
governments  is  connected  with  hers,  he  will 
anxiously  inquire,  whether  the  law  of  growth, 
maturity  and  decay,  to  which  other  nations  have 
been  subject,  belongs  to  her, — whether  she  be  now 


PREFACE.  XI 

advancing,  balancing,  or  receding.  And  more 
than  all  will  he  seek  to  know  whether  the  claims 
her  people  are  now  uttering  so  loud  and  piercingly 
in  the  ears  of  the  world,  are  to  be  disregarded 
forever,  or  at  length  granted. 

To  answer  these  questions  is  all  I  propose  in 
speaking  of  the  "  Fate"  of  England.  I  do  not 
profess  to  be  equal  to  the  task  of  writing  her  future 
history.  No  one  can  do  this.  But  what  each 
man  knows  and  feels  he  may  utter.  His  errors 
others  may  correct ;  his  truths  they  may  use.  I 
speak  confidently  only  of  the  present  and  of  the 
inevitable  crisis  England  is  approaching — Reform 
or  Revolution. 

C.  EDWARDS  LESTER. 

New  York,  Aug.  16, 1842. 


THE   FIRST  BOOK. 


POWER    AND    MAGNIFICENCE    OF 
ENGLAND. 

"  That  power  whose  flag  is  never  furl'd — 

"  Whose  morning  drum  beats  round  the  world." 

"  THE  future  historian  of  a  decline  and  fall  hereafter,  not  less 
memorable  than  that  of  Rome,  will  probably  commence  his  work 
with  a  corresponding  account  of  the  power  and  extent  of  the 
British  Empire  under  William  the  Fourth  and  Clueen  Victoria. 
What  Rome  was  in  its  influence  over  the  destinies  of  mankind 
in  the  1st  century,  England  is  now  in  the  19th ;  while  not  merely 
in  regard  to  rank  in  science  and  civilization,  but  also  in  the 
territorial  extent  of  its  possessions,  on  which  the  sun  never  sets, 
England  occupies  a  prouder  position  than  ancient  Rome." — 
Westminster  Rsv.  Ap.  1842. 


VOL*   I. 


CONDITION    AND    FATE 

OF 

ENGLAND. 

BOOK    FIRST. 

POWER    AND    MAGNIFICENCE    OF   ENGLAND. 

IN  England  or  out  of  England,  one  is  every- 
where met  with  evidences  of  her  greatness.  Whe- 
ther he  stand  in  the  centre  of  London  and  feel  the 
pulsations  of  that  mighty  heart  which  sends  its 
life  blood  to  the  farthest  extremities  of  the  British 
Empire,  or  enter  her  palaces  and  manufactories, 
or  walk  along  her  docks,  or  travel  the  world,  the 
exclamation  is  still,  "  Great  and  Mighty  England !" 

Her  power  seems  omnipresent,  her  ships  circle 
the  pole,  and  "  put  a  girdle  round  the  earth." 
Her  cannon  look  into  every  harbour,  and  her 
commerce  flows  into  every  nation.  She  has  her 
word  to  say  in  every  part  of  the  habitable  world. 
Scarcely  a  nation  projects  an  outward  scheme 
without  first  looking  up  to  behold  the  aspect  which 
England  will  assume  toward  it.  Nineteen  hun- 
dred -ears  no-o  the  Roman  standard  first  floated 


16  POWER    AND    MAGNIFICENCE 

on  the  shores  of  Britain.  Then  a  race  of  barba- 
rians, clothed  in  the  skins  of  wild  beasts,  roamed 
over  the  uncultivated  island.  The  tread  of  the 
legions  was  then  heard  on  the  plains  of  Africa  and 
Asia,  and  the  name  of  Rome  was  written  on  the 
front  of  the  world.  Nearly  two  thousand  years 
have  rolled  by,  and  Julius  Csesar  and  all  the  Cae- 
sars, the  Senate,  the  people,  and  the  Empire  of 
Rome  have  passed  away  like  a  dream.  Her  po- 
pulation now  only  a  little  exceeds  that  of  New- 
York  state, — while  that  island  of  barbarians  has 
emulated  Rome  in  her  conquests,  and  not  only 
planted  and  unfurled  her  standard  in  the  three 
.  quarters  of  the  globe  that'  owned  the  Roman  sway, 
but  laid  her  all-grasping  hand  on  a  new  continent. 
Possessing  the  energy  and  valour  of  her  Saxon 
and  Norman  ancestors,  she  has  remained  uncon- 
quered,  unbroken,  amid  the  changes  that  have 
ended  the  history  of  other  nations.  Like  her  own 
island  that  sits  firm  and  tranquil  in  the  ocean  that 
rolls  round  it,  she  has  stood  amid  the  ages  of  man 
and  the  overthrow  of  empires. 

A  nation  thus  steadily  advancing  over  every 
obstacle  that  checks  the  progress  or  breaks  the 
strength  of  other  governments ;  making  every 
Avorld-tumult  wheel  in  to  swell  its  triumphal 
march,  must  possess  not  only  great  resources,  but 
great  skill  to  manage  them.  Looking  out  from 
her  sea-home  she  has  made  her  fleets  and  her 
arms  her  voice.  Strength  and  energy  of  charac- 
ter, skill,  daring,  and  an  indomitable  valour  ex- 


OP    ENGLAND.  17 

erted     through    these    engines  of  power,    have 
raised  her  to  her  present  proud  elevation. 

Her  navy  embraces  six  hundred  vessels.  Be- 
sides these  she  has  fleets  and  steamships  and  pack- 
ets so  constructed  as  to  be  easily  converted  into 
war  ships.  In  the  short  space  of  two  months  she 
could  send  150  more  steam  frigates  well  equipped 
to  sea,  making  in  all  750  war  vessels  ;  so  that  she 
could  stretch  a  line  of  battle  ships  from  Liverpool 
to  New- York,  each  separated  only  four  miles  from 
the  other.  Twenty-seven  millions  of  people  in  the 
three  kingdoms  sit  down  in  the  shadow  of  her 
throne.  In  the  East  150,000,000  more  come  un- 
der her  sway,  beside  the  vast  number,  civilized  and 
uncivilized,  that  inhabit  her  provinces  in  every 
quarter  of  the  globe.  The  Liverpool  Times,  in 
announcing  the  birth  of  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
thus  sums  up  the  vast  extent  of  the  empire : — 
"  Salutes  in  honour  of  his  birth  will  be  fired  in 
America,— on  the  shores  of  Hudson  Bay,  along 
the  whole  line  of  the  Canadian  Lakes,  in  New 
Brunswick,  Nova  Scotia,  Newfoundland,  in  the 
Bermudas,  at  a  hundred  points  in  the  West  In- 
dies, in  the  forests  of  Guinea,  and  in  the  distant 
Falkland  Islands,  near  Cape  Horn. — In  Europe, 
in  the  British  Islands,  from  the  Rock  of  Gibraltar, 
from  the  impregnable  fortifications  of  Malta,  and 
in  the  Ionian  Islands. — In  Africa,  on  the  Gui- 
nea Coast,  and  St.  Helena  and  Ascension  from  the 
Cape  to  the  Orange  River,  and  at  the  Mauritius. — 
In  Asia,  from  the  fortress  of  Aden  in  Arabia,  at 
2* 


18  POWER    AND    MAGNIFICENCE 

Karrack,  in  the  Persian  Gulf,  by  the  British  arms 
in  Afghanistan,  along  the  Himalaya  Mountains, 
the  banks  of  the  Indus  and  the  Ganges,  to  the 
Southern  point  of  India,  in  the  Island  of  Ceylon, 
beyond  the  Ganges  in  Assam  and  Arracaan,  at 
Prince  of  Wales'  Island,  and  Singapore,  on  the 
shores  of  China,  at  Hong  Kong  and  Chusan,  and 
in  Australia,  at  the  settlements  formed  on  every  side 
of  the  Australian  continent  and  Islands,  and  in 
the  Strait  which  separates  these  Islands  of  the 
New  Zealanders.  No  Prince  has  ever  been  born 
in  this  or  any  other  country,  in  ancient  or  mo- 
dern times,  whose  birth  would  be  hailed  with  re- 
joicings at  so  many  different  and  distant  points  in 
every  quarter  of  the  world."* 

*  While  the  Glueen  of  England  was  giving  birth  in  the  pa- 
lace to  her  princely  boy,  some  hundreds  of  English  mothers, 
"  made  of  as  good  stuff"  as  she,  were  undergoing  the  pains  of 
accouchement  in  damp,  cold  cellars — without  attendants  or  phy- 
sicians, many  of  them,  and  some  without  food  enough  to  keep 
them  and  their  new-born  children  alive..  Merciful  Heaven ! 
These  mothers  (fifteen  hundred  and  sixty)  sent  a  petition  to  the 
dueen  for  help,  praying  that  while  she  was  passing  through  the 
pains  of  child-birth  she  would  remember  the  thousands  of  her 
humble  sisters  who  would  during  the  cold  winter  approaching 
be  called  to  the  same  trial — thousands  too  who  through  the  cruel 
oppressions  of  the  government  are  reduced  to  starving  poverty. 
The  dueen,  it  is  believed,  is  kind-hearted  :  but  what  can  she 
do  1  She  is  only  an  Imperial  Pauper  herself,  although  pretty 
well  provided  for.  Her  Ministers  told  these  poor  mothers  to  go 
home,  for  they  could  not  help  them.  God  help  them  !  If  the 
dueen's  baby  has  $150,000  a  year,  the  operative's  baby  must 
starve,  for  money  is  not  plentiful  enough  to  provide  for  babies 
at  this  rate. 


OF    ENGLAND.  19 

After  glancing  o'er  this  catalogue  of  countries 
he  might  well  inquire,  where  is  there  a  spot  where 
English  cannon  do  not  speak  English  power? 
Of  her  rejoicings  at  home  we  have  nothing  to  say. 
Let  her  hail  the  birth  of  a  monarch,  who  may  be, 
with  acclaims,  bell-ringings,  and  the  firing  of  can- 
non, till  " the  fast  anchored  isle"  rock  to  the  Ju- 
bilate— the  world  may  listen  or  not,  as  it  pleases. 
But  the  echo  of  her  guns  north  of  Boston  and 
New- York — beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains — south 
of  Florida — and  east  of  Charleston,  has  something 
startling  and  ominous  in  it.  Along  the  St.  Law- 
rence, Lake  Ontario,  Erie,  and  Michigan,  one  long 
booming  shot  rolls  down  over  these  free  States, 
saying,  "  England  is  here  and  her  cannon  too." 
The  wandering  tribes  of  the  western  prairies  and 
Guianian  forests  hear  it  and  cower  back  to  their 
fastnesses,  for  England  is  there.  It  sends  terror 
through  millions  of  hearts  as  it  thunders  from  the 
harbors  and  fortresses  of  the  East  Indies.  The 
vessels  entering  the  Mediterranean  turn  an  anxious 
eye  to  the  rocks  of  Gibraltar,  as  the  smoke  slowly 
curls  up  their  sides  ;  and  the  report  of  a  thousand 
cannon  say  in  most  significant  language,  that  En- 
gland is  there.  To  the  reflecting  man  there  is 
meaning  in  that  shot  which  goes  round  the  earth. 
England  sends  her  messengers  abroad  to  every 
nation,  and  the  insignia  of  her  power  are  scattered 
among  all  the  tribes  of  the  great  family  of  man  ; 
while  she  sits  amid  the  sea,  as  if  her  power  was 
the  centre  of  tides,  whose  pulsations  are  felt 


20  POWER    AND    MAGNIFICENCE 

on  every  shore,  and  up  every  continent-piercing 
river. 

To  England  we  accord  greatness;  there  is 
something  in  her  name  which  awes  mankind. 
The  pressure  of  her  hand  is  felt  on  every  govern- 
ment, and  her  voice  is  heard  at  the  council  boards 
of  every  nation.  To  one  who  looks  only  on  the 
territory  of  England  proper,  the  extent  of  her  do- 
minion seems  incredible.  That  a  small  island 
should  rule  half  continents  is  indeed  strange.  No 
other  nation  since  Rome  has  so  expanded  herself, 
reached  out  such  long  arms,  and  with  them 
grasped  so  much,  and  so  strongly.  How  so  small 
a  body  can  extend  and  wield  such  immense  limbs 
surprises  those  who  calculate  power  from  physical 
strength.  It  is  the  moral  power  of  England  that 
has  carried  her  so  high.  Mind  and  skill  multiply 
physical  power  a  hundred-fold.  It  is  as  true  of 
nations  as  of  individuals.  Every  able-bodied  man 
has  two  arms,  and  five  fingers  at  their  extremities, 
yet  who  estimates  the  power  of  the  body  so  much 
as  the  power  of  the  will  that  controls  it  ?  An  ox 
can  draw  more  than  fifty  men,  it  may  be,  but  a 
single  man  can  set  in  motion  machinery  which 
wields  a  power  greater  than  that  of  the  fabled  Cy- 
clops. China  with  her  vast  territory  and  exhaust- 
less  population,  can  be  brought  to  her  knees  by  a 
few  English  ships  and  a  few  English  cannon, 
guided  and  pointed  by  English  mind.  The  few 
on  one  side  are  governed  by  mind  ;  the  many  on 
the  other  by  ignorance.  It  is  this  which  has  ena- 


OF    ENGLAND.  21 

bled  England  so  long  to  stand  at  the  head  of 
Europe,  and  send  her  mandates  over  the  world. 
No  throne  since  the  world  stood  has  had  such  in- 
tellects gathered  round  it  as  the  British  throne. 
The  clear  heads  that  encircled  it  have  ever  been 
her  firmest  bulwarks.  The  intellect  of  Pitt  or 
Canning  can  do  for  England  in  diplomacy  what 
Malta  and  Gibraltar  cannot.  English  monarchs 
have  in  most  instances  been  mere  puppets — the 
wires  that  moved  them  were  in  the  hands  of  such 
men.  It  was  this  moral  power  alone  that  made 
America  her  successful  antagonist.  Hitherto  she 
had  met  physical  force  with  moral  power,  but 
when  she  made  her  onset  here,  then  "  Greek  met 
Greek."  In  the  conflicts  of  ignorant  nations  it  is 
only  a  trial  of  muscles  and  bones,  like  the  strifes 
of  brutes,  but  in  those  of  enlightened  nations  it  is 
the  struggle  of  the  souls.  England's  soul,  not  her 
arms,  has  impressed  itself  on  the  world.  It  is  the 
intelligence  with  which  she  speaks  that  swells  her 
voice  so  far,  and  makes  it  remembered  so  long. 
It  is  the  intelligence  that  guides  her  fleets  and 
armies  that  renders  them  so  formidable. 

Besides  there  is  a  humanity  about  her  when  not 
crushed  out  by  pride  and  love  of  power.  The 
Commons  of  England  have  often  shown  a  stead- 
fast resistance"  to  tyrants  that  has  blessed  the  cause 
of  human  freedom  the  world  over.  They  have 
cut  off  one  king's  head,  and  can  another's  when  ne- 
cessary. The  yeomanry  of  England  are  superior 
to  those  of  any  other  nation  in  Europe.  Bold, 


m 


22  POWER    AND    MAGNIFICENCE 

intelligent,  and  upright,  they  ought  to  constitute 
no  small  share  of  her  glory.  Even  amid  the  ter- 
rors and  lawlessness  of  civil  war  they  have  acted 
with  moderation  and  humanity.  When  king  and 
commons,  tyranny  and  aristocracy,  were  arrayed 
against  each  other,  under  the  ascending  star  of 
Cromwell,  civil  law  in  England  lost  little  of  its 
sacredness.  There  is  a  love  for  the  right  and  the 
true  among  them  which  equally  resists  lawless- 
ness and  oppression.  There  is  also  a  religious 
feeling  pervading  this  class,  which,  mingling  with 
the  rough  elements  of  the  old  Norman  and  Saxon 
character,  gives  double  power  to  them  as  a  body. 
It  is  the  intelligence  and  morality  of  these  men, 
which  ought  to  be  the  foundation  of  the  English 
government,  that  will  assert  their  power  when  re- 
volutionary times  come  on  again.  There  is  no 
danger  of  the  tyranny  of  British  kings  ever  being  re- 
established—all oppression  now  proceeds  from  the 
aristocracy — and  the  people  are  so  fast  advancing 
in  a  knowledge  of  human  rights,  and  the  con- 
sciousness of  their  power,  which  is  always  asso- 
ciated with  intelligence,  that  the  danger  of  the 
aristocracy  is  fast  increasing  too. 

It  will  be  unnecessary  for  me  to  say  much  of 
the  manufactures  of  Britain.  Most  of  my  readers 
know  that  her  machinery  accomplishes  more  every 
year  than  could  be  done  by  the  entire  population 
of  the  globe  without  it ;  the  machinery  of  England 
does  the  work  and  puts  forth  the  power  of  six 
hundred  million  men,  exceeding  by  one-third  the 


OF    ENGLAND.  23 

entire  number  of  men  in  the  world.  But  I  need 
not  dwell  on  these  facts  for  they  have  been  told  a 
thousand  times.  England's  commerce  adminis- 
ters to  the  wants  and  the  luxury  of  the  world — 
finding1  its  way  to  the  farthest  limits  of  the  globe. 
Her  merchants,  like  those  of  old  Tyre  and  Alex- 
andria, are  clothed  in  scarlet  and  dwell  in  palaces. 
And  every  nation,  and  every  tribe  of  earth's  great 
family,  pour  into  her  lap  the  gold  and  silver  and 
precious  stones  and  luxuries  of  every  clime. 

England  also  stands  unrivalled  in  the  great 
men  and  the  literature  she  has  given  to  the  world. 
From  Alfred  who  laid  the  foundation  of  British 
Glory,  down  through  British  history  till  now,  she 
presents  a  galaxy  of  illustrious  men,  furnished  in 
the  annals  of  no  ancient  or  modern  empire.  In 
her  Milton  she  has  more  than  a  Homer,  in  her 
Bacon  more  than  a  Solon,  and  in  her  Shakspeare 
more  than  the  earth  has  ever  beheld  in  any  other 
mortal  mould.  Her  Literature  has  done  more  for 
human  freedom  and  civilization  than  all  the  Lite- 
rature of  other  nations.  Expansive  in  its  nature 
it  has  given  men  more  comprehensive  views  and 
uncovered  the  treasures  of  the  human  intellect. 
It  has  revealed  the  true  sources  of  power,  and 
taught  men  to  know  their  strength.  Bacon  un- 
bound the  earth  and  set  men  acting  intelligently, 
or  rather  marching  forward  instead  of  beating  time. 
Newton  unbound  the  heavens,  and  bade  them  roll 
in  harmony  and  beauty  before  the  eye  of  intelli- 
gence. England  has  literally  waked  up  the  world. 


24  POWER    AND    MAGNIFICENCE 

Not  satisfied  with  knowing  and  improving  the 
present,  she  has  hastened  the  future.  In  her  im- 
petuous valour  she  has  called  on  the  tardy  ages, 
as  if  in  haste  to  meet  their  unknown  events. 
But  this  she  attempts  no  more.  The  future  she 
invoked  has  come,  and  like  Hamlet  she  starts  at 
the  spirit  she  has  summoned  forth.  Having  taught 
the  people  knowledge — they  are  now  sternly  and 
intelligently  demanding  their  rights ;  having  taught 
the  people  strength — they  are  shaking  the  throne 
with  its  first  experiment.  Proud  in  her  power, 
she  has  dared  to  do  what  no  other  nation  has  ever 
attempted — she  has  given  her  people  the  book,  of 
human  rights,  and  yet  told  them  not  to  ask  for 
their  own.  She  has  told  them  they  were  free,  and 
yet  cheated  them  into  the  submission  of  serfs.  In 
every  other  experiment  she  has  been  thus  far  suc- 
cessful— but  here  she  has  overrated  her  strength. 
If  it  could  be  done  England  could  do  it.  But  it  is 
attempting  a  contradiction,  an  impossibility  ;  and 
yet  we  can  hardly  see  how  she  could  escape  the 
dilemma.  Without  being  an  enlightened  nation, 
she  could  not  have  been  great ;  and  being  an  en- 
lightened nation,  she  cannot  exercise  despotic 
power  with  safety.  Yet  starting  on  this  broad 
basis,  we  cannot  well  see  how  she  could  have 
passed  from  it  easily ;  not  that  it  would  have  been 
impossible  had  there  been  a  will ;  but  taking  into 
the  account  the  prejudices  of  men,  their  love  of 
power  and  wealth  and  pride,  it  is  natural  England 
should  retain  the  form  of  government  she  adopted. 


OF    ENGLAND.  25 

even  after  its  workings  were  seen  to  be  evil.  She 
could  most  easily  have  been  a  free  and  a  great  na- 
tion, when  in  the  transition  state  to  which  Crom- 
well brought  her,  had  a  second  Cromwell  been 
found  to  take  the  place  of  the  first.  Here  Macauley 
thinks  England  made  her  great  mistake, — "  either 
Charles  the  First  never  should  have  been  brought 
to  the  block,  or  Charles  the  Second  never  should 
have  been  brought  to  the  throne."  Had  the  great 
Hampden  lived  no  man  can  say  this  consumma- 
tion would  not  have  been  perfected, — it  would 
most  likely  have  been  done. 

To  do  it  now  would  be  to  wipe  out  at  one  stroke 
the  long  line  of  Kings — bury  the  Peerage — rend 
Church  and  State  from  their  harlot-embrace — fling 
the  reins  of  government  to  the  people,  and  bid 
them  guide  their  own  destinies,  and  relieve  their 
own  wants.  This,  King,  Peerage,  and  Hierarchy 
will  never  willingly  permit.  To  lay  down  their 
honors  and  ill-gotten  wealth  at  the  feet  of  the 
people,  and  be  reduced  to  the  painful  necessity  of 
acquiring  them  by  industry  and  merit,  is  a  task 
they  cannot  perform.  Honors  they  must  have,  and 
opulence  too.  though  millions  perish  as  the  price 
of  obtaining  them.  Their  rent-roll  must  be  as 
great,  though  millions  more  fill  the  land  with  the 
cry  for  bread.  To  sustain  the  splendors  of  royalty, 
aristocracy,  and  hierarchy,  there  must  be  a  per- 
petual drain  of  wealth  from  the  people,  to  flow 
round  the  throne  and  privileged  classes.  This  flow 
of  wealth  does  not  pass  through  the  natural  chan- 

VOL.  i.  3 


26  POWER    AND    MAGNIFICENCE 

nels  of  trade.  The  people  receive  no  equivalent 
for  it.  To  go  and  take  it  from  the  poor  man's  pocket 
at  the  bayonet's  point  would  be  too  bare-faced  a 
robbery  in  the  sight  of  the  world.  Hence  inor- 
dinate taxation — tithes,  church  rates,  corn-laws, 
excise  and  custom  duties,  &c.  must  be  employed 
to  legalize  the  robbery.  The  mass  of  the  people 
behold  this  stream  of  gold  incessantly  flowing  from 
them  towards  their  idle  and  profligate  oppressors, 
while  there  returns  not  even  a  scanty  supply  of 
bread.  Such  a  sight  naturally  awakens  the  keenest 
inquiry,  and  as  the  injustice  of  it  all  forces  itself 
upon  them,  the  strongest,  stormiest  passions  of  the 
human  soul  are  aroused. 

The  English  government  is  a  solid  one,  but  it 
must  be  infinitely  more  so  to  sustain  itself  amid 
such  a  wild  waking  up  of  men  to  their  rights. 
There  is  a  glory  round  her  throne  and  her  peer- 
age, whose  honors  were  laid  in  the  days  of  Nor- 
man chivalry ;  but  it  must  be  brighter  than  it  has 
ever  yet  been,  to  dazzle  the  eyes  of  wronged  and 
starving  men,  for  the  first  time  open  to  the  true 
and  only  means  of  redress.  The  Church,  with  its 
long  train  of  mitred  bishops,  led  on  by  Royalty  it- 
self, is  an  imposing  spectacle,  but  it  must  invent 
some  new  majesty  to  awe  a  people  that  openly, 
boldly  cry,  "  Give  us  more  bread,  and  fewer 
priests  /"  The  throne  of  England  towers  as  ma- 
jestic as  ever,  but  fearful  shadows  are  flitting  over 
it,  the  visages  of  famine-struck,  hate-filled  men. 
The  chariot  with  its  blazing  coronet,  and  lazy 


OF    ENGLAND.  27 

lord  within,  rolls  by  as  imposingly  as  ever  ;  but 
there  is  an  ominous  sound  in  the  streets  which  the 
rumbling  of  its  wheels  cannot  utterly  drown ;  it 
is  the  low,  half-suppressed  threat,  YOUR  TIME 
WILL  COME  !  Her  cathedrals  and  bench  of  bi- 
shops retain  their  ancient  splendor,  but  there  are 
eyes  looking  on  them  with  other  purpose  than  to 
admire  or  revere. 

To  the  careless  observer,  England  is  as  power- 
ful and  magnificent  as  ever  ;  all  things  yet  remain 
as  they  were.  But  there  is  an  under-working 
power  which  gathers  strength  from  the  very  ob- 
stacles that  bar  its  progress.  The  tremendous 
power  exerted  to  restrain  it  from  bursting  forth, 
cannot  make  it  cease  working.  Instead  of  ex- 
pending its  fires  in  eruptions,  it  slowly  eats  away 
under  ground,  hollowing  out  the  whole  moun- 
tain on  which  the  throne,  the  aristocracy,  and  the 
church  rest.  The  greatest,  keenest-sighted  men 
of  England  know  this,  and  they  begin  to  study 
these  new  and  alarming  appearances,  as  philoso- 
phers study  volcanoes,  not  to  see  what  they  shall 
do  with  the  volcano,  but  what  the  volcano  is  go- 
ing to  do  with  them.  And  yet  after  all,  we  think 
England  could  make  as  great  an  exertion  (in 
certain  directions)  now  as  ever.  In  a  crisis  which 
should  call  forth  all  her  resources  she  would  ex- 
hibit as  much  strength  as  she  has  ever  done.  A 
common  danger  would  unite  for  a  while  all  her 
jarring  interests.  No  outward  force,  we  imagine, 
can  subdue  her.  Her  provinces  might  be  cut  off 


28  POWER    AND    MAGNIFICENCE 

in  a  general  war,  but  her  throne  she  would  hold 
against  the  world.  Her  danger  lies  where  the  ex- 
ertion of  physical  force  would  only  increase  it. 
Not  abroad,  but  at  home,  are  the  elements  of  trou- 
ble. Not  hostile  armies,  but  her  own  subjects 
have  become  her  greatest  dread.  She  has  reached 
that  crisis  from  which  most  governments  date 
their  decline — -her  foes  have  become  they  of  her 
own  household. 

In  many  respects  she  resembles  the  Roman  em- 
pire. Her  own  population  being  but  a  small  pro- 
portion to  the  number  of  her  subjects  ;  like  Rome 
her  external  growth  has  been  more  rapid  than 
her  internal ;  or  rather,  while  she  has  been  ex- 
tending her  dominion  abroad,  the  elements  of  de- 
struction have  been  gathering  at  home.  Like 
Rome,  too,  her  arms  have  become  too  long  for  her 
body.  Even  had  not  the  Northern  barbarians 
swarmed  down  on  her,  "  like  a  giant  drunk  with 
wine,"  Rome  soon  would  have  reeled  to  her 
downfall..  Nothing  but  a  regeneration  of  the  peo- 
ple could  rescue  her  from  the  approaching  ruin. 
But  England  is  not  threatened  with  this  evil ;  her 
superstructure  does  not  totter  because  it  stands  in 
the  midst  of  a  depraved  people,  but  because  it  is 
based  on  millions  of  "agitated  human  hearts.  It 
vibrates  not  so  much  because  it  is  drunk  with  sin, 
as  because  the  bowed  necks  on  which  it  has  so 
long  rested,  begin  to  erect  themselves.  England's 
greatness  is  in  the  past,  not  in  the  future.  She 
looks  back  with  pride,  forward  with  shuddering. 


OF    ENGLAND.  29 

This  truth  was  illustrated  to  me  most  forcibly  as 
I  passed  from  the  crowded  streets  of  London  into 
the  TOWER,  that  grand  and  gloomy  treasure-house 
of  England's  feudal  and  military  glory.  It  was 
founded  by  William  the  Conqueror  as  a  fortress 
nearly  eight  centuries  ago,  and  it  speaks,  to  us  of 
modern  times,  in  the  voice  of  the  feudal  age.  As 
I  entered  its  pondrous  gates,  crossed  the  ditch,  and 
stood  before  the  massive  buildings,  made  gloomy 
by  the  terrible  part  they  have  played  in  the  histo- 
ry of  England,  the  past  rose  before  me,  crowded 
with  its  majestic  figures.  For  awhile  the  misery 
of  England  was  forgotten — London  was  to  me  as 
though  it  were  not — I  stood  in  the  shadow  of 
past  centuries.  It  is  not  my  object  to  describe  the 
Tower,  but  to  listen  for  awhile  to  the  language  of 
this  old  home  of  the  English  monarchs.  In  one 
of  the  great  chambers  of  the  Tower,*  (the  Horse 
Armoury,)  were  arranged,  in  regular  and  chrono- 
logical order,  twenty-two  equestrian  figures,  many 
of  them  the  most  celebrated  kings  of  England, 
with  their  favorite  lords  ;  all  of  them  with  their 
horses,  in  the  armour  of  the  ages  in  which  they 
lived,  surrounded  by  the  insignia  of  their  rank, 
and  the  trophies  of  their  conquests.  In  passing 
slowly  along  this  royal  rank,  I  saw  first,  the 
figure  of  Edward  I.  clad  in  armour  he  wore  600 
years  ago,  with  hauberk,  and  sleeves,  and  hood, 

*  The  destruction  of  a  large  part  of  these  valuable  treasures  of 
antiquity  in  this  building  by  fire  in  1841,  was  subsequent  to  the 
date  of  the  visit  here  referred  to. 

3* 


30  POWER    AND    MAGNIFICENCE 

and  chausses  of  mail.  Next  came  Henry  VI.  with 
his  battle-axe  in  hand,  and  his  knightly  cap  on 
his  head.  Passing  Edward  IV.  and  Henry  VII., 
I  stood,  with  a  strange  feeling,  face  to  face  with 
Henry  VIII.  in  his  gilt  plate  armour.  As  he 
scowled  down  on  me  in  his  battle-array,  I  wanted 
to  whisper  in  his  ear  the  names  of  his  murdered 
wives  and  disinherited  daughters.  I  imagined  the 
change  that  passed  over  that  kingly  face  when  he 
read  the  letter  of  the  incomparable  Ann  Boleyn, 
written  to  him  from  this  very  Tower,  a  little  be- 
fore she  was  brought  to  the  block.  Though  his 
heart  had  become  harder  than  the  mail  that  co- 
vered it,  there  were  daggers  in  these  dying  words 
of  a  faithful  wife  that  found  their  way  to  its  core : 
— "  Let  not  your  Grace  ever  imagine  that  your 
poor  wife  will  ever  be  brought  to  acknowledge  a 
fault,  when  not  so  much  as  a  thought  thereof  ever 
preceded.  *  *  *  Try  me,  good  King,  but  let 
me  have  a  lawfull  tryall :  and  let  not  my  sworn 
enemies  sit  as  my  accusers  and  judges  :  yea,  let 
me  receive  an  open  tryall,  for  my  truth  shall  fear 
no  open  shames.  *  *  *  gut  if  you  have  al- 
ready determined  of  me,  and  that  not  only  my 
death,  but  an  infamous  slander  must  bring  you 
the  enjoying  of  your  desired  happiness,  then  I  de- 
sire of  God  that  he  will  pardon  your  great  sin 
therein,  and  likewise  mine  enemies,  the  instru- 
ments thereof,  and  that  he  will  not  call  you  to  a 
strict  account  for  your  unprincely  and  cruel  usage 
of  me  at  his  general  Judgment  Seat,  where  both  you 


OF    ENGLAND.  31 

and  me,  myself,  must  shortly  appear,  and  in  whose 
judgment,  I  doubt  not,  (whatsoever  the  world 
may  think  of  me,)  mine  innocence  shall  be  openly 
recorded  and  sufficiently  cleared,  &c.  From  my 
dolefull  prison  in  the  Tower,  this  6  of  May. 
Your  most  loyall  and  ever-faithful  wife, 

ANNE  BOLEN." 

To  that  judgment  he  has  gone,  and  the  King  of 
Kings  has  made  inquisition  for  the  blood  of  the 
pure  and  the  innocent. 

As  I  looked  on  this  long  line  of  kings,  sitting 
motionless  on  their  motionless  steeds,  the  sinewy 
hand  strained  over  the  battle-axe,  the  identical 
sword  they  wielded  centuries  ago  flashing  on  my 
sight,  and  the  very  spurs  on  their  heels  that  were 
once  driven  into  their  war  steeds  as  they  thun- 
dered over  the  battle  plain,  the  plumes  seemed  to 
wave  before  my  eyes,  and  the  shout  of  kings  to 
roll  through  the  arches.  The  hand  grasping  the 
reins  on  the  horses  necks  seemed  a  live  hand,  and 
the  clash  of  the  sword, .  and  the  shield,  and  the 
battle-axe,  and  the  mailed  armour,  rang  in  my  ear. 
I  looked  again  and  the  dream  was  dispelled. 
Motionless  as  the  walls  around  them,  they  sat, 
mere  effigies  of  the  past.  Yet  how  significant ! 
Each  figure  there  was  a  history — and  all  monu- 
ments of  England's  glory  as  she  was.  At  the  far- 
ther end  of  the  adjoining  room  sat  a  solitary  "  Cru- 
sader on  his  barbed  horse,  said  to  be  700  years 
old."  Stern  old  grim  figure  !  On  the  very  trap- 


32  POWER    AND    MAGNIFICENCE 

pings  of  thy  steed,  and  on  that  thick  plated  mail, 
has  flashed  the  sun  of  Palestine.  Thou  perchance 
did'st  stand  with  that  gallant  host,  led  on  by  the 
wondrous  Hermit,  on  the  last  hill-top  that  over- 
looks Jerusalem ;  and  when  the  Holy  City  was 
seen  lying  like  a  beautiful  vision  below,  glittering 
in  the  soft  light  of  an  eastern  sunset,  that  flooded 
Mount  Moriah,  Mount  Zion,  and  Mount  Olivet, 
with  its  garden  of  suifering,  and  more  than  all, 
Mount  Calvary,  thy  voice  did  go  up  with  the 
mighty  murmur  of  the  bannered  host,  Jerusalem  I 
Jerusalem !  On  that  very  helmet  perchance  has 
the  scimetar  broke  ;  and  from  that  mailed  breast 
the  spear  of  the  Infidel  re-bounded.  Methinks  I 
hear  thy  battle-shout,  "  to  the  rescue ! "  as  thy 
gallant  steed  is  borne  into  the  thickest  of  the  fight, 
where  thy  brave  brethren  are  struggling  for  the 
Cross  and  the  Sepulchre. 

But  Crusades  and  Crusaders  are  well-nigh  for- 
gotten. For  centuries  the  dust  of  the  desert  has 
drifted  over  the  bones  of  the  chivalry  of  Europe. 
The  Arab  still  spurs  his  steed  through  the  forsaken 
streets  of  ancient  Jerusalem,  and  the  Muezzin's 
voice  sings  on  the  Sepulchre  of  the  Saviour. 

I  next  passed  into  Queen  Elizabeth's  Armoury, 
where  the  rusty  blades  and  enormous  shields, 
picked  from  a  hundred  battle-fields,  were  gathered. 
The  old  glaive  and  bill,  the  boar-spear,  halberds 
and  pikes,  the  battle-axe,  the  mace  and  the  cross- 
bow, with  a  thousand  instruments  of  war  and  de- 
solation were  piled  around  the  room.  Here  also 


OF    ENGLAND.  33 

were  all  the  hideous  apparatus  of  torture,  the 
thumb-screw,  the  collar  of  torment,  the  bilboa,  and 
there  the  beheading-axe,  which  is  said  to  have  se- 
vered the  neck  of  the  beautiful  Ann  Boleyn. 

Omitting  a  thousand  interesting  objects,  the 
visitor  at  length  entered  the  Small  Arm  Armoury, 
a  magnificent  room  345  feet  in  length,  which  has 
been  well  called  "  a  wilderness  of  arms."  Here 
were  seen  arms  for  over  100,000  men,  all  new 
fh'nted  and  ready  for  immediate  use.  In  the  Jewel 
Room  were  preserved  the  Crown  Jewels,  the  Re- 
galia, the  Royal  communion  service,  &c.  The 
room  was  dark  and  these  superb  jewels  were  seen 
by  lamp  light.  It  was  a  blaze  of  diamonds — the 
eye  was  dazzled  with  the  glittering  wealth  scat- 
tered around.  In  other  apartments  I  was  every- 
where met  with  emblems  of  England's  power; 
here  she  has  clustered  the  crowns  and  jewels  of 
whole  races  of  kings. 

Wearied  and  overpowered  with  the  feelings 
such  objects  conspired  to  awaken — borne  over  so 
many  battle-fields,  and  startled  at  every  step  by 
some  unexpected  figure  rising  in  my  face  from  the 
past,  scowled  down  upon  by  kings  on  their  war 
steeds,  shaking  their  battle-axes  over  my  head — I 
was  glad  to  escape  into  the  pure  air,  and  take  one 
long  look  up  into  the  far  spreading  quiet  sky. 

From  the  Tower  I  ascended  the  Monument, 
which  is  near  by,  to  look  around  upon  the  World 
of  London,  heaving  with  its  excited,  busy  millions, 
like  a  stirred  ocean.  I  once  more  looked  on  the 


34  POWER    AND    MAGNIFICENCE 

actual  and  the  real.  The  rolling  of  ten  thousand 
carriages,  the  sound  of  its  mighty  population  going 
up  in  one  ceaseless,  confused  roar  to  heaven,  con- 
trasted strangely  with  the  silence  and  solitude  of 
those  fearful  cells  and  chambers.  "  This  then,"  I 
exclaimed  "  is  England  !"  In  a  few  moments  I 
had  passed  from  the  feudal  age  with  its  darkness 
and  gloom,  to  the  turbulent  scene  of  action  in  our 
own  times.  England's  Glory  is  in  the  past,  her 
shame  in  the  present,  and  her  danger  in  the  future. 
Proud  of  victories  she  has  achieved,  vain  of  her 
splendor,  she  stood  fairly  represented  in  those 
trophies  and  jewels.  And  yet,  who,  of  the  thou- 
sand half  starved  wretches  that  moved  in  such 
masses  below  me,  ever  think  of  the  Tower  !  The 
feudal  age  has  gone  by  forever.  That  distant 
manufactory  is  greater  than  the  Tower,  for  it  is  a 
living  thing.  That  powerful  steam  ship  is  an  ob- 
ject of  deeper  interest  than  the  relics  of  a  thou- 
sand victories,  for  it  does  something.  Meii  can 
no  longer  fall  back  on  the  past  for  support — they 
must  move  with  the  onward  flow  of  the  present, 
or  fall  and  be  crushed  by  the  trampling  tide  of 
the  millions  whom  it  were  idle  for  them  to  dream 
of  stopping  or  staying.  The  aristocracy  of  Eng- 
land regard  the  Tower  as  they  do  the  halls  of 
their  ancestors  ;  they  gaze  on  its  treasures,  and 
hug  with  greater  tenacity  the  more  it  is  assailed, 
the  spirit  of  feudal  times  ;  they  feel  there  is  some- 
thing ominous  to  them  in  the  activity  and  rest- 
lessness of  the  present  age. 


OF    ENGLAND.  35 

As  from  this  height  I  looked  down  on  miserable 
habitations  of  the  poor,  and  cast  my  eye  over  dis- 
tant Spitalfields  and  thought  of  the  150,000  who 
knew  not  where  they  were  to  sleep  that  night — 
of  the  myriads  crying  for  bread  within  sight  of 
so  much  splendor — how  that  Tower  sunk  in  my 
sight.  It  had  but  an  hour  ago  stirred  my  heart 
like  a  trumpet-call,  but  now  as  I  saw  its  white 
turrets  against  the  sky,  I  hated  its  grandeur.  What 
were  its  emblems  of  greatness  1  emblems  of 
tyranny.  The  power  that  once  wielded  those  in- 
struments for  self-aggrandizement,  now  used  for 
the  same  purpose  the  sweat  and  toil  of  the  poor. 
To  gather  these  treasures  the  blood  of  many  thou- 
sands of  England's  subjects  had  been  spilt.  To 
sustain  the  pomp  and  royalty  they  minister  to, 
tens  of  thousands  now  pine  in  ignorance  and  die  of 
famine.  Give  me  that  Jewel-room  to  convert 
into  bread,  and  I  will  send  a  shout  of  joy  over 
the  land  that  never  before  shook  England.  Give 
me  the  useless  diamonds  that  glitter  on  from  age 
to  age  by  lamplight  in  that  dark  and  narrow  cell, 
and  before  to-morrow  night  there  shall  go  up 
more  thanksgiving  from  London  than  ever  before 
rose  from  its  receptacles  of  woe.  Convert  these 
monuments  of  royal  vanity  into  money  which 
shall  clothe  and  feed  the  naked  and  the  hungry, 
and  in  one  single  day,  they  will  purchase  more 
happiness,  than  they  will  impart  though  they 
shine  on  for  a  thousand  centuries.  How  strong 
must  be  the  love  of  pomp,  when  it  can  overcome, 


36  POWER    AND    MAGNIFICENCE 

not  only  sympathy  for  the  suffering,  but  the  fears 
and  dangers  of  a  mad  and  desperate  population. 
Yes,  I  exclaimed,  England's  magnificence  is  based 
on  suffering  hearts,  formerly  purchased  by  blood, 
now  by  tears — formerly  won  in  the  hot  fierce 
fight  that  filled  hundreds  of  villages  with  mourn- 
ing— now  in  the  darker  conflict  of  tyranny  with 
liberty  at  home — of  the  few  with  the  many — the 
rich  with  the  poor,  and  which  leaves  the  land  fill- 
ed with  pallid  poverty,  wan  famine,  and  scowling 
hate. 

War  of  some  sort  England  must  wage  to  sus- 
tain her  privileged  classes — war  with  other  na- 
tions, or  war  with  her  own  subjects.  Spoils  she 
must  win  from  somebody,  or  her  oligarchy  or 
hierarchy  go  to  the  ground.  To  support  so  large 
an  unproductive,  and  yet  spendthrift  class,  money 
must  be  obtained  by  unjust  means.  The  spoils 
of  war  or  the  spoils  of  home  oppression,  it  matters 
not  which,  if  they  can  but  lay  their  hand  upon 
them.  Slothful  and  luxurious,  they  will  not  pro- 
duce ;  they  only  spend.  Let  another  Tower  be 
erected  to  trumpet  forth  England's  magnificence, 
and  all  the  trophies  of  it  gathered  there.  Let  the 
relics  be  picked  from  any  battle-field  where  the 
people's  rights  have  fallen,  and  piled  within. 
Place  on  his  appropriate  pedestal,  (a  straw  couch,) 
that  wan  and  haggard  man  who  died  for  want  of 
the  bread  which  the  Corn  Laws  had  placed  beyond 
his  reach.  Close  by  him  arrange  the  squalid  fam- 
ily in  the  damp,  foul  cellar,  famishing  because  an 


OF    ENGLAND.  37 

honest  father  can  find  no  work.  Arrange  in  im- 
posing groups  the  corpses  of  children  that  have 
perished  in  her  manufactories.  Bring  in  the  men, 
women,  and  children,  chained  together  naked  in 
her  coal  mines.  Let  the  rags  and  tatters  be  the 
Crown  jewels,  and  take  Pomp  through  the  Mu- 
seum, and  bid  her  behold  her  appropriate  trophies. 
Such  a  Tower  would  fill  all  London.  Yet  it 
would  be  more  appropriate,  more  significant,  than 
the  other — for  England's  present  wealth  and  gran- 
deur grow  as  really  out  of  this  suffering  and  desti- 
tution, as  it  formerly  did  out  of  her  armies  and  na- 
vies ;  or  in  other  words,  out  of  the  sufferings  and 
destitution  of  foreign  foes.  Idle  and  profligate 
pomp  must  live  on  open  or  secret  spoils ;  but  spoils 
are  not  to  be  got  without  inflicting  wrong  and 
suffering  somewhere ;  and  indeed  a  greater  sacri- 
fice of  life  is  now  demanded  to  sustain  the  feudal 
spirit  and  worthless  magnificence  of  England, 
than  when  whole  ranks  were  mowed  down  by 
the  scythe  of  war. 

But  one  who  looks  at  England  as  she  now  is, 
must  be  struck  with  the  moral  change  which  is  so 
rapidly  working  throughout  her  population.  The 
reverence  for  symbols  is  fast  passing  away.  The 
people  no  longer  shout  when  the  coronet  flashes 
by.  They  will  no  longer  fight  that  a  lazy  lord 
may  wear  another  star  or  ribbond.  A  feudal 
chieftain  can  no  longer  lead  his  vassals  like  sheep 
to  the  slaughter,  to  gratify  his  pride,  or  appease  his 
revenge.  Men  begin  to  think  for  themselves  :  of 

VOL.  i.  4 


38  POWER    AND    MAGNIFICENCE 

every  project  of  government  the  subjects  ask 
"  Cui  bono  ?"  Even  they,  thick-headed  as  their 
oppressors  would  fain  have  us  believe  them,  are 
able  to  perceive  some  inconsistency  in  such  piles 
of  wealth  being  got  without  labour,  and  squander- 
ed without  profit,  while  they  who  slave  in  sorrow 
die  without  bread.  Before  this  cry  for  bread 
titles  and  symbols  disappear.  Want  sweeps  dis- 
tinctions to  the  grave.  Famine  is  the  greatest  le- 
veller on  earth.  Its  hand  will  strike  a  lord  as 
quick  as  a  peasant.  It  will  send  its  cry  into  the 
very  heart  of  the  palace  as  soon  as  into  a  hovel. 
Men  dare  ask  for  bread  any  where  of  any  man. 
When  men  have  abundance  they  want  glory; 
when  they  lack  bread  glory  cannot  satisfy  them. 

England  seems  now  to  stand  as  the  representa- 
tive head  of  the  monarchies  of  Europe,  and  she 
is  leading  the  van  in  the  solemn  conflict  through 
which  each  is  destined  to  pass — the  conflict  which 
is  to  decide  whether  governments  shall  be  for  the 
few  or  the  many,  the  rulers  or  the  ruled.  In  that 
conflict  which  no  earthly  power  can  long  delay, 
thrones  are  to  sink,  the  long  lines  of  kings  dis- 
appear, and  titles  and  estates  vanish  away. 

It  is  well  England  is  thrown  first  into  this 
great  arena,  for  she  will  pass  the  trial  with  a  mo- 
deration and  a  firmness  we  could  not  expect  of 
other  nations  ;  and  when  she  comes  forth  from  it, 
the  question  will  be  settled  for  the  continent  and 
the  world. 


BOOK  THE  SECOND. 


EMBRACING    A    VIEW    OF    THE    GENERAL 
CONDITION    OF    THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE 

IN  PAST  AGES THEIR  BURDENS  AND 

SUFFERINGS. 

In  past  ages,  the  People — never  having  conceived  the  idea  of  a 
social  condition  different  from  its  own,  and  entertaining  no 
expectation  of  ever  ranking  with  its  chiefs — submitted  without 
resistance  or  servility  to  their  exactions,  as  to  the  inevitable 
visitations  of  the  arm  of  God. — DC  Tocqueville. 

The  Poor  were  not  the  authors  of  the  system  which  has 
mined  their  freedom,  their  industry  and  their  morals. — Edinburgh 
Review. 

The  sternest  Republican  that  ever  Scotland  produced,  was  so 
struck  with  this  reflection,  (the  increase  of  pauperism,  ignorance 
and  crime,)  that  he  did  not  hesitate  to  wish  for  the  re-establish- 
ment of  Domestic  Slavery,  as  a  remedy  for  the  squalid  wretched- 
ness and  audacious  guilt  with  which  his  country  was  overrun. — 
Quarterly  Review. 


BOOK  SECOND. 


GENERAL  CONDITION  OF  THE  BRITISH  PEOPLE 
IN  PAST  AGES THEIR  BURDENS  AND  SUF- 
FERINGS. 

I  HAVE  somewhere  seen  it  stated,  that  the  great 
Hampden,  just  before  he  died,  remarked,  while 
conversing  with  a  friend  on  the  condition  and 
prospects  of  the  English  Nation,  "  with  how  much 
astonishment  will  the  men  of  future  times  read 
the  history  of  the  injustice  and  oppression  of 
Kings  and  Tyrants." 

A  striking  fulfilment  of  this  prediction  is  fur- 
nished in  our  own  age.  As  the  darkness  which 
gathered  over  the  human  mind  in  former  centu- 
ries passes  away,  no  inquiries  become  so  earnest 
as  those  which  relate  to  the  rights,  privileges,  and 
destiny  of  man ;  rights  of  which  he  has  always 
been  robbed ;  privileges  he  never  dared  to  hope 
for,  and  a  destiny  of  whose  glory  he  never  dreamed. 

Every  age  has  what  is  called  its  great  princi- 
ple or  motive,  which  more  than  all  others  controls 
4* 


42  GENERAL    CONDITION    OF    THE 

the  minds  of  men,  and  which  by  universal  consent 
is  adopted  as  the  indisputable  axiom  of  the  time. 
The  grand  motive  of  one  age  has  been  policy, 
of  another  valor,  and  of  another  truth.  The 
times  of  Justinian  aiford  an  example  of  the  first ; 
the  age  of  Feudalism  of  the  second,  and  the 
Reformation  of  the.  last. 

During  the  reign  of  the  Roman  Emperor,  when 
the  public  mind  had  become  enervated  by  luxury, 
artfulness  and  finesse  were  the  qualities  most 
admired,  and  the  only  means  of  self-elevation. 
But  during  the  long  and  gloomy  period  when 
Europe  was  under  the  sway  of  the  Feudal  Baro- 
nies, military  accomplishments  were  the  chief 
objects  of  ambition,  and  the  surest  road  to  honor. 
Chivalry  was  the  reigning  spirit  of  the  age.  The 
people  followed,  not  principles,  but  men.  All 
other  considerations  were  lost  in  enthusiasm  for 
the  personal  heroism  of  their  leader.  If  you 
wished  to  rouse  the  energies  of  a  nation  to  move 
in  some  great  enterprize,  you  had  but  to  point  to  a 
gallant  knight,  accomplished  in  all  the  warlike 
virtues  of  his  time,  and  uncounted  thousands 
burning  with  enthusiasm  would  flock  to  his  stand- 
ard. This  spirit  gave  birth  to  those  heroic  actions 
which  fill  up  the  brilliant  legends  of  the  old  cru- 
saders. It  was  a  far  more  enterprizing  and  stir- 
ring principle  than  had  hitherto  guided  the  world. 

When  turbulent  Europe  settled  back  to  its 
repose  after  the  crusades  were  over,  it  had  assumed 
an  entirely  new  aspect.  The  human  mind  was 


BRITISH  PEOPLE  IN  PAST  AGES.     43 

now  prepared  for  higher  achievements.  For  the 
heavy  tread  of  those  indomitable  masses  of  living 
valour,  that  fought  for  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  had 
hardly  died  away  on  the  ear  of  Europe,  before  the 
trumpet  call  of  the  Reformation  was  sounded  from 
the  woods  of  Germany  by  the  Monk  of  Erfurth, 
and  a  new  principle  took  possession  of  the  civilized 
world.  Resting  from  its  bold  struggles  with  the 
infidel  hosts  of  the  East,  the  exploits  of  heroism 
were  no  longer  the  theme  of  universal  admiration, 
and  the  hero  and  his  deeds  were  forgotten  together. 
Other  and  higher  objects  of  contemplation  filled 
the  minds  of  men.  They  began  to  gaze  dimly 
through  the  dust  of  ages  after  truth — long-buried 
Religious  Truth — truth  that  would  satisfy  the 
wants  of  man's  higher  nature — truth  descended 
from  Heaven  for  the  soul,  and  yet  hitherto  de- 
nied it. 

The  awakening  truth-seeking  world  no  longer 
cares  for  the  Politician,  the  Crusader  or  the  King. 
It  boldly  asks  whence  the  mitre  derives  its  sacred- 
ness — the  Pope  his  infallibility  1  Where  are  the 
Records  of  God's  Prophets  and  God's  anointed 
Son  ?  "What  has  obscured  their  pages  ?  Who  has 
dared  to  hide  them  from  the  sight  of  man  ?  This 
new  love  of  Truth  which  inflamed  the  souls  of 
the  Reformers,  spread  from  hamlet  to  hamlet,  and 
province  to  province,  until  it  well  nigh  emancipa- 
ted Europe  from  a  spiritual  despotism  that  had 
been  consolidated  by  the  slow  growth  of  ages. 
Then  followed  the  controversial  age,  and  the 


44  GENERAL    CONDITION    OF    THE 

world  became  weary  in  the  fruitless  effort  to  settle 
upon  a  creed  that  should  unite  the  religious 
opinions  of  mankind.  One  grand  result  however 
crowned  these  efforts.  The  foundations  of  Chris- 
tianity were  carefully  examined  and  found  to  be 
firm  and  immovable  ;  and  although  little  approxi- 
mation was  made  towards  a  unity  of  belief  in 
unessential  matters,  yet  a  solid  and  secure  lodge- 
ment was  gained  in  the  human  mind  for  the  great 
principles  of  Christianity,  which  in  their  turn,  gave 
birth  to  civil  freedom,  and  settled  in  the  human 
soul  a  conviction  of  the  equal  rights  of  man,  and 
imparted  a  firm  determination  to  possess  them. 

A  spirit  of  inquiry  has  gone  abroad  over  the 
world  peculiar  to  our  own  age.  Everywhere  men 
are  becoming  restive  under  oppression.  Some- 
thing of  the  greatness  and  value  of  man,  of  the 
sacredness  of  his  rights  as  a  creature  of  God,  and 
the  grandeur  of  his  destiny,  is  dawning  on  the 
human  mind.  The  truth  of  Hampden's  words 
is  written  out  in  clear  bold  characters  upon  the 
institutions,  the  changes,  the  endeavours,  and  the 
spirit  of  this  generation.  Man  is  beginning  to  be 
understood — that  which  "  hath  been  the  riddle  of 
ages."  His  rights  are  beginning  to  be  respected, 
and  the  few  guiding  minds  of  the  world  to  whom 
God  has  committed  the  ark  of  human  liberty,  are 
rallying  the  innumerable  host  of  their  down-trod- 
den brethren,  to  lead  them  forth  from  a  worse  than 
Egyptian  bondage.  They  are  teaching  them  the 
great  lessons  of  liberty,  and  inspiring  them  with 


BRITISH  PEOPLE  IN  PAST  AGES.     45 

the  hope  of  becoming  free. — "  Blessing  on  thee, 
Man !  Sacred,  venerable  thy  name !  Thou  shalt 
live — the  divine  germ  of  thy  nature  shall  yet  ex- 
pand and  grow  and  bear  celestial  fruit,  God's  own 
Freedom  and  Truth  and  Love — God  speed  the 
rescue."  To  millions  now  humanity  has  become 
a  charmed  word,  and  the  most  careless  observer 
of  the  spirit  of  his  time  must  discern  that  this 
spirit  is  rapidly  gaining  sway. 

If  a  great  change  is  proposed  in  the  structure 
of  society  or  the  administration  of  power,  hu- 
manity is  alleged  as  the  reason.  The  press  talks 
of  ignorance,  of  oppression,  of  suffering  ;  it  urges 
no  reason  for  their  removal  but  sympathy  for  the 
sad  condition  of  fellow  men.  Even  religion  is 
not  now  urged  so  much  as  a  duty  and  a  truth,  as 
a  remedy  for  man's  suffering,  bruised  nature — a 
consolation  amid  the  ills  of  life,  and  a  hope  in  the 
dying  hour.  It  is  this  high  Humanity  that  forms 
the  pretence,  the  basis,  the  motive,  to  all  great  un- 
dertakings of  the  age.  It  is  even  a  better,  a  higher 
principle  than  truth  ; — truth  can  but  discern  the 
duty  of  man  and  the  means  of  alleviating  his  con- 
dition ;  but  humanity  gives  enthusiasm  to  the  ex- 
ecution of  that  duty  and  the  relief  of  that  condi- 
tion. Truth,  like  the  daylight,  only  shows  the 
mariner  struggling  with  the  waves ;  it  never 
prompts  the  bold  adventurer  to  plunge  in  and  res- 
cue him  from  death.  When  Truth  has  performed 
its  office,  a  greater  principle  must  come  behind  to 


46  GENERAL    CONDITION    OF    THE 

complete  the  work.  The  heart  of  man  must 
prompt  him  to  act  when  his  intellect  has  taught 
him  to  understand, 

In  the  appearance  and  diffusion  of  this  humane 
spirit  in  modern  times,  is  treasured  up  the  hope 
of  the  world.  Intelligent  philanthropy  is  now 
watching  over  the  interests  of  the  people,  and  the 
time  has  come  when  even  they  are  looking  back 
with  a  nobler  feeling  than  idle  curiosity,  on  the 
past  history  of  the  race.  The  story  of  oppression 
excites  indignation  against  the  oppressor,  and  a 
firmer  purpose  than  ever  to  work  the  regeneration 
of  man. 

There  has  never  been  a  time  when  in  this 
country  and  in  Europe,  so  general  an  interest  has 
been  exerted  in  favour  of  the  working  classes  ; 
or  when  inquiries  into  their  condition,  have  met 
-with  such  universal  favour.  It  will  be  necessary, 
before  we  consider  particularly  the  present  condi- 
tion of  the  lower  classes  in  Great  Britain,  to  be- 
stow a  few  thoughts  on  their  condition  in  past 
times.  It  will,  however,  be  impossible,  as  well  as 
unnecessary,  in  such  a  work  as  this,  to  enter  into 
the  inquiry  very  minutely.  The  entire  space  al- 
lotted to  these  volumes  would  not  contain  a  full 
picture  of  the  wrongs  and  the  sufferings  of  the 
British  people,  even  since  the  times  of  Cromwell 
— much  less  from  the  origin  of  the  British  govern- 
ment. In  another  part  of  this  work  I  shall  review 
the  history  of  the  suffering  and  wrong  Ireland 
has  endured  at  the  hand  of  England.  That 


BRITISH  PEOPLE  IN  PAST  AGES.     47 

subject  is  of  too  much  interest  to  be  crowded  into 
the  brief  limits  of  this  chapter.  We  must  content 
ourselves  with  some  general  statements  of  the 
burdens  and  injustice  that  have  pressed  on  the 
poor  of  England  up  to  the  present  time,  and  the 
introduction  of  a  few  specific  facts  for  illustration. 
It  is  probably  well  known  to  every  reader,  that 
in  all  ages  the  great  majority  of  the  British  people 
have  been  entirely  subjected  to  the  control  of  the 
throne  and  the  aristocracy  ;  that  their  rights  have 
been  disregarded  and  trampled  down  ;  that  neither 
they,  nor  the  tyrants  who  made  their  fetters,  seem 
ever  to  have  thought  that  the  great  object  of  go- 
vernment and  civilized  society  should  be  the 
greatest  good  of  the  greatest  number.  In  tracing 
back  the  history  of  England,  AVC  find  that  in  the 
early  ages,  the  people  were  in  a  state  of  abject 
slavery.  At  the  Norman  Conquest,  the  Feudal 
System,  which  had  been  partially  introduced  into 
England,  was  fully  established,  and  continued  for 
several  centuries  in  all  its  vigor  and  despotism. 
A  false  conception  of  the  Feudal  System  seems 
very  generally  to  prevail,  even  at  the  present  time. 
All  the  charms  of  romantic  legends  have  been 
thrown  around  this  grand,  but  gloomy  structure ; 
and  in  the  gorgeous  array  of  Chivalry,  Crusades, 
Knights,  and  Tournaments,  the  imagination  of  the 
reader  is  dazzled  into  forgctfulness  of  the  unin- 
structed,  neglected,  degraded  masses,  the  story  of 
whose  wrongs  no  one  has  been  found  willing  to 
tell — for  we  find  it  no  where  written. 


48  GENERAL    CONDITION    OF    THE 

After  one  of  the  victorious  battles  of  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution,  as  Washington  and  Lafayette 
were  walking  over  the  field  of  blood,  the  Father 
of  his  Country,  with  one  hand  resting  on  the 
shoulder  of  the  young  French  soldier,  and  the 
other  pointing  to  the  dead  bodies  of  his  brave  men, 
said :  "  My  brave  Marquis,  the  time  will  •  come 
when  the  memory  of  these  fallen  men  will  be  an 
inheritance  worth  more  than  gold  to  their  descend- 
ants. It  seems  to  be  the  decision  of  God  that  his- 
tory should  preserve  the  names  and  the  remem- 
brance of  patriots  who  die  for  liberty  and  their 
country,  while  those  who  fall  in  conquests  of  blood 
and  ambition  shall  be  forgotten.  The  memory  of 
these  men  who  have  fallen  to-day  will  never  be 
forgotten."  How  few  of  those  who  have  died  in 
battle  have  fallen  in  the  cause  of  liberty  !  All 
through  the  dark  ages  the  people  of  England  were 
driven  from  their  homes  to  shed  their  blood,  not  in 
the  defence  of  their  freedom,  but  in  gratifying  the 
ambition  of  their  rulers.  Few  things  are  more  lam- 
entable in  history  than  this  tyrannical  power  the 
few  have  exercised  over  the  multitude.  The  game 
and  policy  of  war  is  well  described  by  the  humane 
Carlyle ;  "  What,  speaking  in  quite  unofficial  lan- 
guage, is  the  net  purport  and  upshot  of  war? 
To  my  own  knowledge,  for  example,  there  dwell 
and  toil  in  British  village  of  Dumdrudge  usually 
some  five  hundred  souls.  From  these,  by  certain 
'natural  enemies'  of  the  French,  there  are  succes- 
sively selected  during  the  French  war,  say  thirty 


BRITISH  PEOPLE  IN  PAST  AGES.     49 

able-bodied  men.      Dumdrudge,  at  her  own  ex- 
pense, has  suckled  and  nursed  them  ;  she  has,  not 
without  difficulty  and  sorrow,  fed  them  up  to  man- 
hood, and  even  trained  them  to  crafts,  so  that  one 
can  weave,  another  build,  another  hammer,  and 
the  weakest  can  stand  under  thirty  stone  avoirdu- 
pois.     Nevertheless,   amid  much    weeping  and 
swearing,  they  are  selected,  all  dressed  in  red,  and 
shipped  away  at  the  public  charges,  some  two 
thousand  miles,  or  say  only  to  the  south  of  Spain ; 
and  fed  there  till  wanted.     And  now,  to  that  same 
spot  in  the  south  of  Spain,  are  thirty -similar  French 
artisans,  from  a  French  Dumdrudge,  in  like  man- 
ner wending ;  till  at  length,  after  infinite  effort, 
the  two  parties  come  into  actual  juxtaposition ; 
and  thirty  stands  fronting  thirty,  each  with  a  gun 
in  his  hand.      Straightway  the  word   'fire!'   is 
given ;  and  they  blow  the  souls  out  of  one  another ; 
and  in  place  of  sixty  brisk,  useful  craftsmen,  the 
world  has  sixty  dead  carcasses,  which  it  must  bury, 
and  anew  shed  tears  for.      Had  these  men  any 
quarrel  ?     Busy  as  the  devil  is,  not  the  smallest ! 
They  lived  far  enough  apart ;  were  the  entirest 
strangers.     Nay,  in  so  wide  a  universe,  there  was 
even,  unconsciously,  by  commerce,  some  mutual 
helpfulness  between  them.     How  then  ?     Simple- 
ton !  their  governors  had  fallen  out  •  and  instead 
of  shooting  one  another,  had  the  cunning  to  make 
these  poor  blockheads  shoot."     This  is  a  real  pic- 
ture— its  like  has  been  seen  on  many  thousand 
battle-fields.     What  cares  the  master  for  the  sacri- 
VOL.  i.  5 


50  POWER    AND    CONDITION    OP    THE 

fice  of  his  slave,  if  it  but  gratify  his  ambition. 
Human  life  is  dog-cheap  till  he  comes  to  sell  his 
own.  It  is  surely  lamentable  enough  to  think  how 
the  mass  have  always  been  made  "  hewers  of 
wood  and  drawers  of  water,"  to  those  who  hap- 
pened to  possess  the  power  at  the  time. 

We  have  not  space  to  speak  at  length  of  serfs 
and  vassals  who  composed  the  large  majority  of 
the  people,  and  who  had  no  appeal  from  the  will 
of  their  masters.  So  deeply  were  the  millions  de- 
graded, that  "  the  serf,"  we  are  told  by  De  Tocque- 
ville,  "  looked  upon  his  own  inferiority  as  a  con- 
sequence of  the  immutable  order  of  nature."  How 
grinding  and  lasting  must  have  been  the  tyranny 
that  brought  him  so  low. 

Man  has  never  yet  been  rightly  estimated. 
Those  who  are  familiar  with  the  forest  and  game 
laws,  know  the  comparative  value  English  kings 
have  placed  upon  a  man  and  the  game  of  the 
woods.  William  the  Conqueror,  "  not  satisfied 
with  sixty-nine  forests,  lying  in  almost  every  part 
of  the  kingdom,  such,  and  so  many,  says  Evelyn, 
as  no  other  realm  of  Europe  had,  laid  waste  a 
vast  tract  of  country  in  Hampshire,  and  created 
another,  thence  called  New  Forest,  because  it  was 
the  last  added  to  the  ancient  ones,  except  that  of 
Hampton  Court,  the  work  of  Henry  VIII.  Such 
was  the  origin  and  extent  of  the  ancient  royal  fo- 
rests of  England ;  all  preserved  and  maintained 
for  the  especial  and  exclusive  pastime  of  the 
kings.  Truly  the  state  of  a  king  was  then  kingly 


BRITISH  PEOPLE  IN  PAST  AGES.     51 

indeed.  Sixty-nine  forests,  thirteen  chases,  and 
upwards  of  seven  hundred  and  fifty  parks  existing 
in  England.  There  were  in  Yorkshire  alone  in 
Henry  VIII's  time,  two  hundred  and  seventy-five 
woods,  besides  parks  and  chases,  most  of  them 
containing  five  hundred  acres.  Over  all  these  the 
king  could  sport,  for  it  was  the  highest  honor  to  a 
subject  to  receive  a  visit  from  the  king  to  hunt  in 
his  chase,  or  free  warren  ;  while  no  subject,  ex- 
cept by  special  permission  and  favor,  could  hunt 
in  the  royal  parks.  These  sixty-nine  forests  of 
immense  extent,  lying  in  all  parts  of  England, 
and  occupying  no  small  portion  of  its  surface,  all 
stood  then  for  the  sole  gratification  of  the  royal 
pleasure  of  the  chase,  and  supplying  the  king's 
household,  and  few  persons  have  now  any  idea  of 
the  state,  dignity,  and  systematic  severity  of  this 
great  hunting  establishment  of  England,  main- 
tained through  all  succeeding  reigns  to  the  time 
of  the  Commonwealth,  and  some  parts  of  it  much 
longer." 

During  one  of  my  rides  through  Essex,  in  the 
summer  of  1840, 1  took  up  an  ancient  book  on  the 
Game  Laws  of  England,  which  I  found  in  turn- 
ing over  the  antique  library  of  my  host,  from 
which  I  gathered  the  following  information.  Wil- 
liam the  Conquerer  decreed  that  the  eyes  of  any 
person  should  be  pulled  out  who  killed  either  a 
buck  or  a  boar  in  the  royal  hunting  grounds. 
Rufus  had  any  man  hanged  who  stole  a  doe. 


52  GENERAL    CONDITION    OF    THE 

Several  successive  kings  made  no  distinction  be- 
tween him  who  killed  a  buck,  made  to  be  killed, 
and  him  who  killed  his  brother  man,  although  at 
one  time  there  was  this  distinction,  the  killer  of 
the  game  died  without  benefit  of  clergy,  or  the 
game  either,  which  latter  was  probably  of  more 
consequence  to  the  hungry  serf  than  the  mum- 
mery of  the  priest  over  his  grave ;  and  the  man- 
killer  could  have  his  crime  commuted  by  a  fine 
of  a  few  shillings  paid  to  the  lord  of  the  estate 
where  the  deed  was  committed.  Thousands  of 
hungry  serfs  had  their  eyes  put  out,  their  legs 
chopped  off,  their  arms  torn  from  their  bodies,  for 
taking  small  game  which  ran  at  large  over  the 
island. 

Any  man  in  the  kingdom  could  be  summoned 
to  attend  on  the  chase,  and  have  his  property  con- 
fiscated if  he  did  not  attend.  He  might  have  a 
good  excuse  for  staying  away ;  his  wife  might  be 
dying,  and  he  wish  to  hear  her  last  request,  and 
then  close  her  eyes  in  death's  sleep;  but  what 
cared  the  king  for  any  such  operation  until  it 
was  likely  to  be  performed  on  himself? 

Old  John  of  Salisbury,  who  was  quite  apt  to 
have  "  a  mind  of  his  own,"  and  a  free  tongue 
withal,  had  no  very  exalted  opinion  of  this  Game 
Code.  He  says  :  "  what  is  more  extraordinary  is, 
that  it  is  often  made  by  law  criminal  to  set  traps 
or  snares  for  birds,  to  allure  them  by  springes  and 
pipes,  or  use  any  craft  to  take  ;  and  offenders  are 
punished  by  forfeiture  of  goods,  loss  of  limbs,  and 


BRITISH  PEOPLE  IN  PAST  AGES.     53 

even  death.  One  would  suppose  that  the  birds 
of  the  air,  and  the  fish  of  the  sea  were  common  to 
all ;  but  they  belong  to  the  crown,  and  are  claimed 
by  the  forest  laws  wherever  they  fly.  Hands  off! 
keep  clear  !  lest  you  incur  the  guilt  of  high  treason 
and  fall  into  the  clutches  of  the  hunters.  The 
swains  are  driven  from  their  fields,  while  the 
beasts  of  the  forest  have  a  liberty  of '  roving,'  and 
the  farmer's  meadows  are  taken  from  him  to 
increase  their  pasture.  The  new-sown  grounds 
are  taken  from  the  farmer,  the  pastures  from  the 
grazier  and  shepherd,  the  beehives  are  turned 
away  from  the  flowery  bank  and  the  very  bees 
are  hardly  allowed  their  natural  liberty."  This 
sounds  very  like  Chartism !  A  man  must  be  made 
of  strange  stuff  to  read  of  such  outrages  on  his 
race  without  indignation.  But  what  have  we  in 
these  times  to  do,  some  one  will  ask,  with  the 
game  laws  of  the  Norman  Conqueror?  Much  every 
way.  Humanity  has  been  affected  by  them  much, 
as  stocks  are  on  'Change  by  failures.  Think  for 
a  moment  what  would  have  been  the  condition 
of  the  race  in  this  age  had  they  never  been  crushed 
under  the  wheels  of  despotism  !  How  much  loftier 
would  have  been  its  elevation  in  intellect,  science 
and  religion !  And  how  much  more  valuable  would 
existence  have  been  to  every  man.  He  would  have 
commenced  life  under  fairer  auspices.  He  would 
have  called  to  his  aid  the  genius  of  millions  who 
had  enlarged  the  bounds  of  science,  and  made  the 
world  better  and  brighter.  He  would  have  been 


64  GENERAL    CONDITION    OF    THE 

saved  the  fruitless  experiment  and  endless  blun- 
dering that  have  cost  the  happiness  of  whole 
generations.  The  hoof  of  oppression  has  trampled 
out  in  its  ruthless  stampings  many  a  Milton  and 
Newton  and  Bacon  and  Shakspeare  that  would 
have  lighted  up  the  ages  through  which  man  has 
made  his  dark  pilgrimage.  In  wandering  by 
fancy  over  this  wilderness  he  has  travelled,  where 
the  wrecks  of  humanity  have  been  strewed,  we 
can  adopt  the  touching  lines  of  Grey, 

'•  Some  village  Hampden,  that  with  dauntless  breast 

The  little  tyrant  of  his  fields  withstood ; 
Some  mute  inglorious  Milton  here  may  rest, 

Some  Cromwell,  guiltless  of  his  country's  blood." 

Power  has  hitherto  "  shut  the  gates  of  mercy  on 
mankind," — this  is  its  History. 


THE  CRIMINAL  CODE  of  England,  which 
remained  in  force  even  till  our  own  times,  was 
probably  the  most  bloody  that  ever  obtained  in 
any  nation,  savage  or  civilized.  Holinshed  states 
that  no  less  than  seventy-two  thousand  persons 
died  by  the  hands  of  executioners  during  the 
reign  of  Henry  VIII.  Sir  William  Blackstone 
mentions  it  as  one  of  the  most  melancholy  facts 
in  the  world's  history,  that  "  among  the  variety  of 
actions  men  are  daily  liable  to  commit,  no  less 
than  one  hundred  and  sixty  have  been  declared 


BRITISH  PEOPLE  IN  PAST  AGES.      55 

by  act  of  Parliament  to  be  felonies  without 
benefit  of  clergy  ;  or  in  other  words,  to  be  worthy 
of  instant  death." 

What  language  can  convey  to  the  mind  of  a 
modern  so  striking  a  picture  of  the  estimate  the 
aristocracy  of  England  have  always  placed  upon 
man,  as  is  found  on  the  statute  book  (Geo.  I.  C. 
22,  and  31,  Geo.  II,  C.  42,)  where  the  punishment 
of  death  is  to  be  inflicted  on  the  man  who  shall 
break  down  the  mound  of  a  fish  pond,  whereby 
any  fish  shall  escape,  or  cut  down  a  cherry-tree 
in  an  orchard  !  One  such  inhuman  law  is  as  good 
as  a  hundred,  to  show  the  spirit  of  English  legis- 
lation in  past  ages.  What  must  have  been  the 
tyranny  of  power,  or  the  condition  of  its  victims, 
when  to  steal  a  loaf  of  bread,  or  a  bit  of  meat, 
worth  twelve  pence,  even  though  the  wretch  might, 
be  starving  with  his  wife  and  children,  condemned 
him  to  death ! 


THE  POOR  LAWS. — Much  has  been  said  on 
all  sides,  of  the  "  English  Poor  Laws," — "  Poor 
Laws,  indeed,"  said  the  Irish  orator,  "  they  are 
rightly  named," — for  it  seems  to  be  the  opinion 
of  very  many  persons  well  qualified  to  decide, 
that  although  they  have  been  sustained  ostensibly 
for  the  benefit  of  the  poor,  they  have  been  to  them 
a  great  curse ;  that  in  all  their  forms  and  varia- 
tions they  have  only  been  a  complicated  machine 
of  despotism.  As  my  views  of  this  subject  may 


56  GENERAL    CONDITION    OF    THE 

not  correspond  with  the  opinions  of  many  other 
persons,  lest  I  should  be  thought  singular,  I  refer 
the  reader  to  a  number  of  papers  on  the  Corn 
Laws,  in  the  Edinburgh  Review,  and  particularly 
to  an  able  article  in  the  October  No.  of  that  Jour- 
nal for  1841,  in  which  will  be  found  a  full  con- 
firmation of  my  views  and  statements. 

The  writer  of  this  paper,  which  appeared  in 
October,  1841,  does  not  hesitate  to  say,  in  speak- 
ing of  the  origin  of  these  laws :  "  We  believe  that 
the  English  Poor  Laws  originated  in  selfishness, 
ignorance  and  pride ;  we  are  convinced  that  their 
origin  was  an  attempt  substantially  to  restore  the 
expiring  system  of  slavery."  And  on  the  sup- 
position that  they  were  designed  by  their  founders 
to  effect  benevolent  designs,  the  writer  says, 
"  they  have  in  scarcely  a  single  instance  attained 
their  objects,  and  in  most  cases  have  produced  ef- 
fects precisely  opposite  to  the  intentions  of  their 
framers ;  that  they  have  aggravated  whatever  they 
were  intended  to  diminish,  and  produced  whatever 
they  were  intended  to  prevent." 

I  have  often  noticed  high  commendations  of 
the  Poor  Laws  in  American  publications  of  es- 
tablished character,  and  from  statesmen  of  some 
fame.  Such  commendations  would  probably  have 
been  withheld  had  the  truth  been  known. 

It  appears  that  this  benevolent  legislation,  so  far 
from  ameliorating  the  condition  of  the  English 
poor,  robbed  them  of  what  little  liberty  the  ini- 
quitous laws  had  hitherto  spared  them. 


BRITISH  PEOPLE  IN  PAST  AGES.     57 

From  the  middle  of  the  reign  of  Edward  III. 
to  the  Poor  Law  Amendment  Act,  these  laws 
"  confined  the  labourer  to  his  parish ;  they  dic- 
tated to  him  who  should  be  his  master  ;  and  they 
proportioned  his  wages,  not  to  his  services,  but  to 
his  wants.  Before  the  Poor  Law  Amendment 
Act,  nothing  but  the  power  of  arbitrary  punish- 
ment was  wanting  in  the  pauperized  parishes,  to 
a  complete  system  of  predial  slavery." — (Ed. 
Rev.) 

"  The  23  Edward  III.  requires  all  servants  to 
accept  the  wages  that  were  usually  given  five  or 
six  years  before ;  and  to  serve  by  the  year  and 
not  by  the  day  ;  it  fixes  a  positive  rate  of  wages 
in  many  employments ;  forbids  persons  to  quit 
places  in  which  they  have  dwelt  in  winter,  and 
seek  employment  elsewhere  in  summer,  or  to  re- 
move, in  order  to  evade  the  act,  from  one  county 
to  another.  A  few  years  after,  in  1360,  the  34th 
Edward  III.  confirmed  the  previous  statute,  and 
added  to  the  penalties  which  it  imposed  on  la- 
bourers or  artificers,  absenting  themselves  from 
their  services,  that  they  should  be  branded  on  the 
forehead  with  the  letter  F." 

"  Twenty-eight  years  after,  in  1388,  was  pass- 
ed the  12th  Richard  II.,  which  has  generally  been 
considered  as  the  origin  of  the  English  Poor 
Laws.  By  that  act,  the  acts  of  Edward  III.  are 
confirmed ;"  and  fresh  and  severe  penalties  enacted, 
"  and  '  because  labourers  will  not,  (says  the  law) 
nor  for  a  long  season  would  not  serve  without 


58  GENERAL    CONDITION    OF    THE 

outrageous  and  excessive  hire,'  prices  are  fixed  for 
their  labour,  and  punishment  awarded  against  the 
labourer  who  receives  more,  and  the  master  who 
gives  more.  Persons  who  have  been  employed 
in  husbandry  until  twelve  years  of  age,  are  pro- 
hibited from  becoming  artizens."  This  law  makes 
no  provision  for  the  impotent  poor,  nor  is  there  a 
clause  in  the  whole  act  intended  to  benefit  any 
person  except  the  land  owners  who  made  the  law. 
If  the  provisions  of  the  act  could  have  been  en- 
forced, the  agricultural  labourers,  and  they  form- 
ed probably  four-fifths  of  the  population  of  Eng- 
land, though  nominally  free,  would  have  been  as 
effectually  ascripti  glebce,  as  any  Polish  serf. 
And  to  make  a  nearer  approximation  to  slavery, 
in  the  next  year  (1389)  the  13th  Richard  II.  was 
passed,  which  directs  the  justices  of  every  county 
to  make  proclamation  every  half-year  at  their  dis- 
cretion, according  to  the  price  of  food,  what  wages 
every  artificer  and  labourer  shall  receive  by  the 
day.  This  act,  with  some  intervals,  during  which 
the  legislature  attempted  itself  to  fix  the  prices  of 
labour,  remained  substantially  in  force  until  the 
present  century.  A  further  attempt  to  reduce 
husbandry  labourers  to  a  hereditary  cast  of  serfs, 
was  made  by  the  7th  Henry  IV.  cap.  17,  (1405,) 
which,  after  reciting  that  the  provisions  of  former 
acts  were  evaded  by  persons  apprenticing  their 
children  to  crafts  in  towns,  '  so  that  there  is  such 
a  scarcity  of  husbandry  labourers,  that  gentlemen 
are  impoverished] — (this  is  an  honest  confession, 


BRITISH  PEOPLE  IN  PAST  AGES.     59 

to  say  the  least) — forbids  persons  not  having  20s. 
a  year  in  land  to  do  so,  under  a  penalty  of  a  year's 
imprisonment.  The  first  attempt  on  the  part  of  a 
person  dependent  on  his  labour  for  his  support,  to 
assert  free  agency  by  changing  his  abode,  or  by 
making  a  bargain  for  his  services,  or  even  by  re- 
fusing to  work  for  '  bare  meat  and  drinkj  render- 
ed him  liable  to  be  whipt  and  sent  back  to  his 
place  of  birth,  or  last  residence  for  three  years,  or 
according  to  some  statutes,  for  one  year,  there  to 
be  at  the  disposal  of  the  local  authorities.  The 
second  attempt  subjected  him  at  one  time  to  sla- 
very for  life,  '  to  be  fed  on  bread  and  water,  and 
refuse  meat,  and  caused  to  work  by  beating,  chain- 
ing, or  otherwise,'  and  for  the  third  he  was  to  suf- 
fer death  as  a  felon" 

"  In  the  early  part  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  was 
passed  a  statute  (5th  Eliz.  cap.  3,  1562)  inflicting 
the  usual  penalties,  whipping,  slavery  and  death, 
on  sturdy  vagabonds,"  i.  e.  able-bodied  men  seek- 
ing employment,  or  in  the  words  of  the  writer 
from  whom  I  am  quoting,  "  those  who,  having  no 
property  but  their  labour,  presumed  to  act  as  if 
they  had  a  right  to  dispose  of  it." 

In  1572,  another  law  was  enacted,  "  aggrava- 
ting the  penalty  by  subjecting  the  offenders  (that 
is,  all  persons  who  would  not  work  for  what  jus- 
tices decided  as  wages)  to  whipping  and  burning 
for  the  first  offence,  and  to  the  penalties  of  felony 
for  the  second." 

"  The  43d  Eliz.  deserves  neither  the  praise  nor 


60  GENERAL    CONDITION    OP    THE 

the  blame  which  have  been  lavished  on  it.  So 
far  from  having  been  prompted  by  benevolence,  it 
was  a  necessary  link  in  one  of  the  heaviest  chains 
in  which  a  people  calling-  thmselves  free  have 
been  bound.  It  was  part  of  a  scheme,  prosecuted 
for  centuries,  in  defiance  of  reason,  justice,  and 
humanity,  to  reduce  the  labouring  classes  to 
serfs  ;  to  imprison  them  in  their  parishes,  and  to 
dictate  to  them  their  employments  and  their 
wages." 

"  The  industrious  labourer  was  not  within  the 
spirit  or  the  words  of  the  act.  This  was  indeed 
the  complaint  of  Lord  Hale.  '  The  plaster,'  says 
his  Lordship,  '  is  not  so  large  as  the  sore.  There 
are  many  poor,  who  are  able  to  work,  if  they  had 
it,  and  had  it  at  reasonable  wages,  whereby  they 
might  support  themselves  and  their  families. 
These  are  not  within  the  provisions  of  the  law.' " 
The  reader  is  prepared,  after  glancing  at  the  fla- 
grant injustice  of  such  legislation,  for  that  true 
but  caustic  remark  of  Dr.  Burn,  in  his  history  of 
the  Poor  Laws,  where  he  says  of  these  barbarous 
enactments,  "  They  make  this  part  of  English 
history  look  like  the  history  of  savages  in  Ame- 
rica— almost  all  the  severities  have  been  prac- 
tised except  scalping." 

The  8th  and  9th  William  III.  cap.  30,  which 
recites  that  "  poor  persons  are  for  the  most  part 
confined  to  live  in  their  own  parishes,  and  not 
permitted  to  inhabit  elsewhere,  though  their  la* 
bour  is  wanted  in  many  other  places," — kept 


BRITISH  PEOPLE  IN  PAST  AGES.      61 

these  laws  against  their  removal  in  force  until 
1795,  when  a  law  was  passed,  which  enacted,  that 
no  poor  person  should  be  removed  from  a  parish 
into  which  he  had  gone,  "  until  he  became  charge- 
able to  his  parish,"  and  then  he  must  go.  The 
scenes  of  barbarous  cruelty  witnessed  under  this 
system  have  been  forcibly  described  by  Dr. 
Southey, — see  Espriella's  Letters. 

Says  Mr.  Simon,  in  his  Journal  of  a  Tour  in 
Great  Britain,  (1815.)  "  The  poor  are  repulsed 
from  one  place  to  another,  like  infected  persons. 
They  are  sent  back  from  one  end  of  the  kingdom 
to  the  other,  as  criminals  formerly  in  France,  de 
brigade  en  brigade.  You  meet  on  the  high 
roads,  I  will  not  say  often,  but  too  often,  an  old 
man  on  foot  with  his  little  bundle,  a  helpless  wi- 
dow, pregnant  perhaps,  and  two  or  three  bare- 
footed children  following  her,  become  paupers  in 
a  place  where  they  had  not  yet  acquired  a  legal 
right  to  assistance,  and  sent  away  on  that  account 
to  their  original  place  of  settlement  in  the  mean- 
time, by  the  overseers  of  parishes  on  their  way." 
(Vol.  i.  p.  224.) 

In  the  House  of  Commons,  March  25th,  1819, 
Mr.  Sturges  Bourne,  in  proposing  his  bill  to  regu- 
late the  settlement  of  the  poor,  spoke  with  great 
indignation  of  "  the  notorious  practice  of  sending 
back  old  paupers  to  their  original  parish  after  they 
had  spent  their  youth  and  labor  elsewhere,  tear- 
ing them  from  their  friends  and  neighbors."  He 
dwelt  with  deep  feeling  on  "  the  extreme  hardship 

VOL.  i.  6 


62  GENERAL    CONDITION    OP    THE 

of  paupers  who,  having  resided  many  years,  and 
formed  connexions,  were  sent  home  to  their  pa- 
rishes, and  separated  from  all  friends  and  conso- 
lations, to  die  in  a  remote  poor-house."  Let  it  not 
be  thought  that  only  a  few  persons  could  have 
suffered  from  this  system,  and  therefore  I  magnify 
its  evils,  for  in  the  year  1803  the  number  of  per- 
sons thus  removed  was  no  less  than  one  hundred 
and  ninety-four  thousand.  I  select  the  year 
1803,  because  it  is  the  only  year  I  am  able  to  as- 
certain the  number  removed.  I  have  seen  it  stated 
that  the  average  number  of  removals  was  not 
much  short  of  this  forvmany  years  ! 

It  will  readily  be  seen  by  the  reader,  that  these 
oppressive  enactments  for  ages  recognized  no  dis- 
tinction between  innocent  and  culpable  vagrants. 
"Innocent  and  culpable  vagrants,"  says  Colqu- 
houn,  "  are  confounded  together ;  and  the  virtuous 
and  the  vicious  mendicant  are  subject  to  the  same 
punishment."  They  not  only  made  poverty  a 
crime,  whose  dreadful  penalty  was  exile  from 
home  and  friends  ;  but  these  Poor  Laws  rendered 
poverty  the  necessary  and  unavoidable  lot  of  the 
working  classes,  for  they  limited  their  wages  to 
the  lowest  possible  rates,  and  punished  the  bene- 
factor who  gave  them  more. 


Our  next  inquiry  refers  to  the  GENERAL  CHA- 
RACTER OF  THE  POOR  HOUSES  to  which  gener- 
ations of  the  poor  were  driven. 


BRITISH  PEOPLE  IN  PAST  AGES.      63 

Colquhoun  says — "In  many  places  they  will 
be  found  to  be  the  abodes  of  misery,  which  defy 
all  comparison  in  human  wretchedness"  More 
than  one  Parliamentary  Report  has  styled  them, 
"  hot-beds  of  vice  and  wretchedness."  When  the 
able  Report  of  the  Poor  Law  Commissioners  was 
laid  before  Parliament,  in  1817,  Brougham  fear- 
lessly declared,  that  "  it  unfolded  a  state  of  society 
extraordinary  and  deplorable,  beyond  the  utmost 
stretch  of  the  imagination,  in  a  country  which 
laid  any  claim  to  civilization  ! "  It  is  unnecessary 
to  multiply  extracts.  No  person  who  has  any  re- 
putation as  an  author  to  lose,  will  deny  that  the 
picture  I  have  drawn  of  the  Poor  Laws,  and  their 
oppressive  tendency,  is  not  only  true,  but  that  facts 
could  be  accumulated,  almost  without  number, 
proving  that  a  state  of  things  existed  worse  by  far 
than  almost  any  other  ever  known  in  the  civilized 
world.  It  should  not  be  forgotten  too,  that  the  de- 
sign of  these  laws,  for  more  than  400  years,  was 
to  perpetuate  the  existence  of  a  slave  class  in  the 
country,  by  excluding  them  from  every  avenue  to 
wealth,  education,  and  honor.  They  impoverished 
the  mass  of  the  people  by  making  them  work  for 
a  bare  subsistetice  ;  treated  their  poverty,  which 
had  been  created  by  the  laws,  as  a  crime  ;  and 
then  scourged  the  poor  victims  of  tyranny  to  the 
disgusting  and  loathsome  home  of  the  pauper,  to 
end  an  existence  filled  with  suffering  and  covered 
with  gloom. 

The  whole  system  of  legislation  in  England 


64  GENERAL    CONDITION    OF    THE 

has  always  been  fatal  to  the  morals  and  the  hap- 
piness of  the  lower  classes.  The  poor  man  loses 
his  self-respect,  and  all  motives  to  exertion,  when 
the  reward  of  industry  is  taken  away  ;  when,  by 
a  false  and  unnatural  order  of  things,  his  condition 
in  life  is  rendered  no  better  by  industry,  effort,  and 
morality,  than  by  indolence  and  crime.  He  ceases 
to  prefer  virtue,  unless  it  rewards  its  possessor, 
for  he  knows  as  well  as  the  priest  who  fattens  on 
the  fruits  of  his  toil,  that  virtue  would  be  no  better 
than  vice,  if  it  did  not  secure  the  happiness  of  its 
followers.  Under  the  paralysing  effects  of  unjust 
laws,  multitudes,  who  have  toiled  on  in  want,  have 
at  last  lost  all  motive  to  effort,  and  fallen  upon  the 
parishes  for  support,  where,  although  their  priva- 
tions were  increased,  they  were  saved  the  trouble 
of  providing  for  themselves.  Here  the  last  salu- 
tary influence  was  withdrawn ;  what  little  self- 
respect  may  have  lurked  in  his  bosom,  leaves  the 
Pauper  as  he  steps  on  the  threshold  of  the  work- 
house ;  and  in  that  gloomy  confinement,  shut  out 
from  the  glorious  objects  of  creation,  his  soul,  into 
which  the  spirit  of  aspiration  arid  greatness  had 
been  once  breathed  by  the  eternal  Father,  is 
smothered  and  debased  ;  its  existence  is  almost 
blotted  out ;  and  when  it  leaves  its  abused  and 
lacerated  house  of  mortality,  the  world  does  not 
feel  the  departure,  for  it  has  met  with  no  loss. 
His  death  is  unfelt,  unless  it  may  be  some  brother 
of  misfortune  there  has  had  his  heart  drawn  out 
as  to  an  only  friend,  and  even  he  is  glad  when  his 


BRITISH  PEOPLE  IN  PAST  AGES.     65 

pilgrimage  is  over.  The  pauper  dies — his  spirit 
flies,  "  no  marble  tells  us  whither ;"  and  when  he 
is  buried,  only  the  few  he  left  behind  knew  that 
he  ever  existed  in  a  green  world,  where  "God 
has  made  everything  beautiful  in  his  time." 

One  more  illustration  will  answer  our  pur- 
pose, and  I  select  it  from  the  "CHIMNEY-SWEEP 
CHILDREN'S"  history.  At  different  periods  the 
attention  of  Parliament  has  been  called  to  a  most 
brutal  practice  that  has  extensively  prevailed  for 
a  long  time  in  England,  of  forcing  small  children 
into  the  cruel  task  of  sweeping  chimneys.  For 
proof  of  the  barbarities  committed,  and  their 
extent,  I  refer  the  reader  to  evidence  laid  before 
the  House  of  Commons,  with  which  he  may  be 
already  familiar. 

From  this  evidence  it  appears  that  a  vast  num- 
ber of  children,  some  of  them  purchased,  many  of 
them  stolen,  and  more  obtained  from  the  parish 
workhouses,  have  been  tortured  into  premature 
graves  by  this  terrible  business.  Says  one  of  these 
Reports — "  These  children  are  oftentimes  stolen 
for  this  purpose.  They  are  very  liable  to  cough 
and  inflammation  of  the  chest,  from  their  being  out 
at  all  hours,  and  in  all  weathers ;  these  are  gene- 
rally increased  by  the  wretchedness  of  their  habi- 
tations, as  they  too  frequently  have  to  sleep  in  a 
shed,  exposed  to  the  changes  of  the  weather,  their 
only  bed  a  soot-bag.  They  are  very  subject  to 
burns,  from  their  being  forced  up  chimneys  while 
on  fire,  and  while  overheated  ;  and  however  they 
6* 


66  GENERAL    CONDITION    OF    THE 

may  cry  out,  their  inhuman  masters  pay  not  the 
least  attention,  but  compel  them  too  often  with 
horrid  imprecations  to  proceed.  They  are  some- 
times sent  up  chimneys  on  fire  !  It  is  in  evidence 
before  your  committee,  that  at  Hadleigh,  Barnet, 
Uxbridge,  and  Windsor,  female  children  have 
been  employed.  It  is  also  in  evidence  that  they 
are  stolen  from  their  parents,  and  inveigled  out 
of  workhouses;  that  in  order  to  conquer  the 
natural  repugnance  of  these  infants  to  ascend  the 
narrow  and  dangerous  chimneys  to  clear  which, 
their  labor  is  required,  blows  are  used  ;  that  pins 
are  forced  into  their  feet  by  the  boy  that  follows 
them  up  the  chimney,  in  order  to  compel  them  to 
ascend  it ;  and  that  lighted  straw  has  been  applied 
for  that  purpose  ; — that  the  children  are  subject  to 
sores  and  bruises,  and  wounds  and  burns  on  their 
thighs  and  knees  and  elbows,  and  that  it  requires 
many  months  before  the  extremities  of  the  elbows 
and  knees  become  sufficiently  hard  to  resist  the 
excoriations  to  which  they  are  at  first  subject. 
But  it  is  not  only  the  early  and  hard  labor,  and 
spare  diet,  wretched  lodging,  and  harsh  treatment, 
that  is  the  lot  of  these  children,  but  in  general 
they  are  kept  almost  entirely  destitute  of  educa- 
tion and  moral  and  religious  instruction."  And 
this  state  of  things  continued  with  greater  or  less 
abuses,  and  the  government  slept  over  it  till  eight- 
een hundred  and  forty,  when  some  measures  were 
at  last  taken  for  its  suppression  ;  but  from  what  I 
have  been  able  to  learn,  I  fear  with  little  success. 


BRITISH  PEOPLE  IN  PAST  AGES      67 

I  have  thus  glanced  at  the  physical  condition 
of  the  lower  classes  with  what  minuteness  my 
space  would  allow.  During  these  long  centu- 
ries of  degradation  and  suffering  among  the  poor, 
what  has  the  government  done  for  their  EDUCA- 
TION? In  one  word,  nothing !  In  "  Colquhoun's 
Treatise  on  Indigence,"  (1806,)  an  authority  indis- 
putable almost  on  this  subject,  it  is  said,  "  It  has 
been  shown  that  above  one  million  of  individ- 
uals (1,234,768)  in  a  country  containing  less  than 
nine  million  of  inhabitantsr  have  descended  into  a 
state  of  indigence  requiring  either  total  or  partial 
support  from  the  public."  And  he  attributes  the 
great  proportion  of  this  destitution  to  the  igno- 
rance, and  consequently  deep  degradation  and 
crime  of  the  people.  He  says  also  that  "  a  pro- 
digious number  among  the  laboring  classes  co- 
habit together  without  marriage,  and  again  separ- 
ate when  a  difference  ensues,  and  their  miserable 
offspring  from  neglect  are  rarely  reared  to  ma- 
turity. It  will  be  seen  also  from  late  publications, 
that  after  making  very  large  allowances,  at  least 
one  million  seven  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  of 
the  population  of  the  country,  nearly  one  fifth  at 
an  age  to  be  instructed,  grow  up  to  an  adult  state 
without  any  instruction  at  all,  in  the  grossest  ig- 
norance and  without  any  useful  impressions  of 
Religion  or  morality."  The  London  Quarterly 
Review,  which  has  never  represented  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  people  worse  than  they  really  were, 
presents  the  following  gloomy  picture. 


68  GENERAL    CONDITION    OF    THE 

After  stating  on  the  authority  of  Parliament, 
the  number  of  children  in  London,  without  any 
means  of  education,  at  one  hundred  and  thirty 
thousand,  "  several  thousand  of  whom  are  let  out 
to  beggars  and  trained  up  in  dishonesty,"  it  says, 
"  children  are  daily  to  be  seen,  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands about  the  streets  of  London,  brought  up  in 
misery  and  mendicity,  first  to  every  kind  of  suf- 
fering •  afterwards  to  every  kind  of  guilt ;  the  boys 
to  theft,  the  girls  to  prostitution  ;  and  this,  not  from 
accidental  causes,  but  from  an  obvious  defect  in 
our  institutions.  Throughout  all  our  great  ci- 
ties, throughout  all  our  manufacturing  counties, 
the  case  is  the  same  as  in  the  capital."- — •"  Two- 
thirds  of  the  lower  orders  in  London,"  (a  great 
majority  of  the  people)  said  Sir  Thomas  Bernard, 
"  live  as  utterly  ignorant  of  the  doctrines  and  du- 
ties of  Christianity,  and  are  as  errant  and  uncon- 
verted pagans  as  if  they  had  existed  in  the  wild- 
est part  of  Africa."  In  quoting  this  remark  into 
the  29th  No.  of  the  Quarterly,  the  Reviewer  says, 
"  The  case  is  the  same  in  Manchester,  Leeds, 
Bristol,  Sheffield,  and  in  all  our  large  towns  ; 
the  greatest  part  of  our  manufacturing  populace, 
of  the  miners  and  colliers,  are  in  the  same  condi- 
tion, and  if  they  are  not  universally  so,  it  is  more 
owing  to  the  zeal  of  the  Methodists  than  to  any 
other  cause."  When  we  read  such  horrible  state- 
ments, we  forget  not,  that  many  million  pounds 
were  during  this  same  period  wrung  from  the 
English  people  to  support  a  National  Church, 


BRITISH  PEOPLE  IN  PAST  AGES.     69 

whose  funds  would  have  richly  maintained  schools, 
churches,  and  missionaries,  for  the  education  of 
these  pagan  millions.  Neither  is  it  to  be  over- 
looked, that  this  same  organ  of  the  church,  from 
which  we  have  taken  these  statements,  was  and 
is  still,  for  ever  talking  of  the  necessity  of  an  es- 
tablished religion  for  the  moral  and  religious  edu- 
cation of  the  poor.  It  is  an  acknowledgment  of 
some  value,  coming  from  such  a  source,  that  the 
only  instruction  the  poor  despised  classes  enjoyed, 
was  from  the  despised  Methodists — a  body  of 
Christians  whom  this  same  High  Church  Tory 
Magazine  thinks  they  never  can  abuse  enough  ; 
that  with  these  heathen  orders  the  established 
clergy  had  nothing  to  do.  And  yet  this  same  Re- 
view has,loudly  clamoured  for  church  extension, 
with  a  clergy  which,  on  its  own  confession,  does 
little  or  nothing  for  the  instruction  of  the  poor,  to 
whom  the  Gospel  was  specially  sent. — Well  might 
this  Quarterly  acknowledge,  as  it  did  only  twenty- 
five  years  ago,  that  "  the  lower  orders  of  Eng- 
land are  more  ignorant  of  their  religious  duties 
than  they  are  in  any  other  Christian  country." 
These  are  the  fruits  of  oppression.  So  much 
for  a  legislation  in  which  the  people  have  had  no 
voice.  Truly  "  the  people  are  not  the  authors  of 
the  system  which  has  ruined  their  freedom,  their 
industry,  and  their  morals."  We  can  only  judge 
of  the  feelings  of  the  poor  of  past  ages  by  their 
feelings  now.  There  must  have  been  "  thoughts 
of  agony,  that  scorpion-like  have  stung  to  mad- 


70  GENERAL    CONDITION    OF    THE 

ness"  the  souls  of  millions  into  whose  wretched 
hearts  the  very  iron  of  despotism  has  been 
driven.  But  could  we  behold  the  tears  of  wretch- 
edness that  have  drenched  their  pillows — seen  only 
by  God — the  limbs  that  have  rotted  in  dungeon 
chains — the  "  withered  forms,  that  in  Botany  Bay 
have  been  doomed  to  perpetual  exile  from  their 
country  for  offences  against  arbitrary  and  unjust 
laws  " — could  we  see  the  parting  scenes  upon  the 
shores  of  England  where  thousands  of  these  poor 
wretches  have  been  torn  from  their  wives  and 
children  amidst  their  entreaties  to  be  suffered  to 
go  with  their  husbands  and  fathers  ! — could  we 
see  them  go  and  commit  crimes  that  they  might 
be  condemned  to  the  same  now  joyous  fate — could 
we  hear  the  cries  of  hungry  and  oppressed  gene- 
rations of  the  poor — could  we  glance  but  for  once 
on  that  dark  scroll  of  tyranny  and  wrong  perpe- 
trated in  England,  that  will  be  unfolded  in  the 
great  day  of  final  assize — what  tears  could  we  find 
worthy  of  being  shed  over  such  a  spectacle? 
"  But  this  eternal  blazon  cannot  be  to  ears  of  flesh 
and  blood." 

And  while  this  deep  wail  of  sorrow  and  suffer- 
ing, that  we  can  even  now  hear  coming  up 
through  the  vale  of  ages,  was  falling  on  the  ears 
of  successive  races  of  nobles,  hierarchs,  and  kings, 
where  were  "  the  successors  of  the  apostles,"  the 
ministers  of  Jesus  Christ,  paid  by  the  state  ?— Col- 
lecting tithes  ! 

To  the  man  who  will  suffer  himself  to  think  of 


BRITISH  PEOPLE  IN  PAST  AGES.     71 

such  weighty  matters  as  these,  while  his  heart 
beats  one  hundred  times,  what  mystery  is  there, 
that  in  England,  where  all  this  wrong  has  been 
perpetrated,  all  this  suffering  endured,  "gaunt 
millions  with  their  hungry  faces  are  now  stand- 
ing up  to  ask,  as  in  forest  roarings,  these  wash- 
ed upper  classes,  after  long,  unrelieved  centu- 
ries, these  questions.  How  have  ye  treated  us  ? 
How  have  ye  taught  us — fed  us — while  we  toiled 
for  you  1  The  answer  can  be  read  in  flames  over 
the  midnight  summer-sky — this  is  the  feeding — 
the  leading  we  have  had  of  you — EMPTINESS  OF 

POCKET,  OF  HEAD,  AND  OF  HEART  !" 


BOOK  THE   THIRD. 


EMBRACING  A  VIEW  OF  THE  PRESENT 
CONDITION  OF  THE  BRITISH  PEOPLE 
AND  THE  BURDENS  WHICH  OPPRESS 
THEM. 

In  the  sense  Adam  Smith  uses  the  word  poor,  "  living  from 
hand  to  mouth,"  nine  tenths  of  the  English  people  are  poor. — 
Edinburg  Revieiv,  Oct.  1841. 

In  the  road  which  the  English  labourer  must  travel,  the  Poor- 
house  is  the  last  stage  on  the  way  to  the  grave. —  Quarterly  Re- 
view, No.  29. 

There  is  a  mighty  evil  connected  with  the  condition  of  the 
working  classes  in  this  country,  which  has  to  be  met,  exposed, 
and  overcome. —  Westminster  Revieio,  Jan.  1842. 

The  men  of  England  are  treated  by  the  landed  interest  worse 
than  their  dogs  and  horses,  which  are  fed  in  proportion  to  their 
toil. — Mr.  Cobrfen's  speech  in  Parliament,  Feb.  22,  1842. 

Under  the  present  Corn  Law,  aided  by  the  Poor  Law,  which 
is  expressly  intended  to  beat  down  the  standard  of  comfort,  and 
BO  degrade  the  labourer,  the  bulk  of  the  working  classes,  both 
in  the  agricultural  and  manufacturing  districts,  are  reduced  on 
ordinary  occasions  to  the  lowest  stage  of  existence,  and  a  bad 
season  is  a  sentence  of  death  to  many  of  the  suffering  poor. — 
London  Sun,  Nov.  17,  1841. 

The  Corn  Law  is  the  master  infamy  of  the  world — the  land- 
lord's curse  on  the  poor  man's  industry.  There  is,  however,  no 
hope  of  relief  for  the  people,  unless  in  a  Reform  of  the  Reform 
Act,  so  that  the  working  classes  may  be  represented  in  Parlia- 
ment.— Mr.  Wakleifs  speech  in  Parliament,  Feb.  18,  1842. 

VOL.    I.  7 


BOOK  THIRD. 


A  VIEW  OF  THE  PRESENT  CONDITION  OF  THE 
BRITISH  PEOPLE  AND  THE  BURDENS  WHICH 
OPPRESS  THEM. 

In  England,  the  empire  of  despotism  has  not  yet 
passed  away.  The  monarch  and  the  privileged 
classes  are  still  born  to  opulence,  luxury  and 
power,  while  want,  suffering  and  oppression,  are 
the  bitter  heritage  of  millions  of  the  people.  Suc- 
cessive generations  have  been  robbed  of  their 
liberty  by  laws,  in  the  making  of  which  they  have 
had  no  voice,  and  over  whose  administration  they 
have  had  no  control.  This  state  of  things  still 
continues.  When  the  people  ask  their  rulers  for 
equal,  humane,  just  legislation,  they  receive  the 
same  answer  always  given  them—"  the  swinish 
rabble  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  laws  but  to 
obey  them." 

In  the  House  of  Lords  there  are  but  five  men 
found  to  vote  for  the  repeal  of  those  barbarous  laws 
which  tax  the  bread  of  the  poor.  In  the  House 


76  PRESENT    CONDITION    OP 

of  Commons,  on  whose  table,  so  late  as  February 
last,  had  been  piled  up  within  a  few  weeks  the 
prayers  of  one  million  three  hundred  thousand 
men,  that  they  might  no  longer  be  compelled  to 
pay  one  third  of  their  toil-purchased  wages  into 
the  pockets  of  the  rich,  a  majority  of  three  hun- 
dred and  three  voted  not  to  grant  them  relief. 
And  when  three  and  a  half  millions  of  people  sent 
up  their  great  petition  on  the  shoulders  of  sixteen 
men  to  the  doors  of  Parliament,  praying  that  they 
might  be  suffered  to  tell  their  grievances  to  the 
representatives  of  the  nation,  by  an  overwhelming 
majority  their  request  was  denied,  and  they  were 
sent  back  to  their  cheerless  hovels  to  hunger  on. 
And  to  show  the  feeling  that  prevails  not  only 
among  the  Tories,  who  have  always  been  the 
enemies  of  the  people,  but  the  Whigs  themselves, 
it  is  necessary  only  to  state,  that  this  immense 
petition  had  no  sooner  been  brought  into  the  Com- 
mons, and  a  motion  introduced  by  Mr.  Duncomb, 
to  hear  the  counsel  of  the  petitioners  at  the  bar  of 
the  House,  than  Thomas  Babington  Macauley 
led  off  in  a  long  and  powerful  speech  against  the 
motion.  It  is  well  known  he  was  one  of  the 
champions  of  the  Reform  Bill,  and  has  been  re- 
garded as  the  warmest  and  most  eloquent  advo- 
cate of  popular  rights  in  the  British  House  of 
Commons.  Shielded  as  was  his  bitter  attack  by 
numerous  and  bland  expressions  of  sympathy  for 
the  people,  yet  in  opposing  the  petition  of  the 
Chartists,  he  spoke  like  a  Tory — advancing  the 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  77 

same  arguments  against  universal  suffrage  that 
the  enemies  of  Republicanism  have  always  done — 
the  incapacity  of  man  for  self-government,  the 
danger  of  committing  power  to  the  people,  and  the 
ruin  that  would  desolate  the  land  if  they  ever 
gained  possession  of  these  rights  declared  by  the 
founders  of  the  American  Republic  to  be  inalien- 
able. 

And  further,  to  show  that  the  great  Reformer, 
in  his  opposition  to  liberty,  was  governed  by  the 
same  spirit  that  has  always  obstructed  its  advance- 
ment, he  boldly  told  the  petitioners  to  give  up  all 
hope  that  the  day  would  ever  come  when  their 
prayer  would  be  granted.  "  I  will  not,"  he  said, 
"  go  into  the  minor  points  contained  in  the  peti- 
tion, because  there  is  one  point  so  important — a 
point  which  in  my  judgement  forms  the  very 
essence  of  the  charter — which  if  withheld,  will 
have  the  effect  of  creating  agitation,  and  which,  if 
granted,  it  matters  not  one  straw  whether  the 
others  are  granted  or  not,  and  that  point  is  UNI- 
VERSAL SUFFRAGE.  Having  a  decided  opinion 
that  such  a  change  would  be  utterly  fatal  to  the 
best  interests  of  the  country  at  large,  I  feel  it  my 
duty  manfully  to  declare  that  /  cannot  consent  to 
hold  out  the  least  hope,  that  I  can  EVER,  UNDER 
ANY  CIRCUMSTANCES,  support  such  a  change." 
He  said  he  was  "  in  favor  of  the  admixture  of  the 
aristocratic  element  in  the  constitution  of  the 
country."  It  was  quite  unnecessary  to  say  this 
after  so  fully  committing  himself  to  the  aristocracy. 


78  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

lie  thought  "  universal  suffrage  would  be  fatal  to 
all  the  objects  for  which  a  monarchy  existed,  an 
aristocracy  existed,  or  even  a  well-ordered  Repub- 
lic existed,  and  that  it  was  incapable  of  co-exist- 
ing icith  the  extension  of  civilization." 

This  ground  was  certainly  bold  enough  to  sat- 
isfy the  most  ultra  conservatives,  and  it  did  satisfy 
them.  Their  leaders  were  in  ecstasy,  and  rose  in 
quick  succession  to  eulogize  the  man  they  had 
pronounced  a  Jacobin  in  the  Reform  days  of  1832, 
for  thus  "manfully"  defending  the  time-honored 
principles  of  the  aristocracy  of  the  realm.  Although 
Macauley  had  in  this  speech  virtually  surrendered 
the  ground  on  which  he  fought  and  conquered  in 
the  troublous  times  of  the  Reform  agitation,  yet 
the  great  majority  of  his  party  went  with  him, 
uniting  with  the  Tories  in  an  attempt  to  crush  the 
hopes  and  the  determinations  of  more  than  two 
millions  of  wronged,  suffering,  but  goaded  and  re- 
solute men.  The  future  will  show  what  success 
will  crown  an  effort  so  hostile  to  the  spirit  of  the  age. 

An  impression  has  gone  abroad  over  America, 
that  the  Reform  Bill  effected  the  political  emanci- 
pation of  England.  The  British  people  themselves 
were,  for  a  time,  deluded  into  this  belief.  But  they 
have  since  discovered  their  mistake,  and  gone 
about  rectifying  it,  with  an  earnestness  and  deter- 
mination which  leave  no  room  for  doubt,  that  the 
heavy  burdens  which  have  been  accumulating 
upon  them  for  ages,  are  soon  to  be  thrown  off  for 
ever. 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  79 

It  will  be  necessary  here  to  glance  at  some  of 
the  circumstances  attending  the  Reform  Bill.  It 
is  well  known  that  the  corruption  of  the  govern- 
ment, in  all  its  branches,  had  become  too  intoler- 
able to  be  borne  any  longer.  George  the  IV.,  one 
of  the  most  dissolute  and  tyrannical  monarchs  who 
had  filled  the  throne  since  Charles  the  II.,  had 
incensed  the  people  by  a  life  of  crime  and  profli- 
gacy, and  they  felt  more  joy  than  sorrow  when 
death  put  an  end  to  his  debauchery. 

It  was  a  gala  day  in  London,  and  throughout 
all  England  business  was  suspended,  when  George 
the  IV.  was  buried.  The  Thames  was  covered 
with  pleasure  boats  and  steamers,  carrying  dense 
gay  crowds  into  the  country.  Parties  were  fitted 
out  to  every  resort  of  pleasure,  and  the  nation  gave 
vent  to  its  unfeigned  joy,  that  a  heartless  tyrant, 
who  had  persecuted  the  beloved  Queen  Caroline 
to  the  grave,  and  outraged  the  liberties  of  his  sub- 
jects, htid  at  last  been  called  to  give  up  his  account 
at  the  bar  of  the  King  of  Kings.  "  There  was 
reason  for  hope,"  says  an  English  writer,  "  but  no 
cause  for  sorrow.  A  vain,  self-engrossed  old  man 
had  at  last  found  his  true  level,  in  'dust  to  dust, 
and  ashes  to  ashes ! '  One  more  obstacle  to  the 
changes  essential  to  progress  was  removed,  and  a 
better  future  appeared  in  prospect." 

A  crisis  had  now  been  reached  by  some  of  the 
principal  nations  of  the  continent,  and  their  affairs 
were  afterwards  to  flow  in  a  different  direction. 
"The  bell  on  St.  Paul's,  when  it  tolled  to  announce 


SO  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

that  George  the  IV.  was  gathered  to  his  fathers, 
startled  Europe  from  its  repose.  Almost  before  its 
tones  had  ceased  to  vibrate  on  the  ear,  a  shock 
came  as  of  an  earthquake,  and  the  dynasty  of  the 
elder  branch  of  the  Bourbons  was  seen  to  pass 
away  like  a  dream.  Ten  days  after  the  remains 
of  the  English  monarch  had  been  interred  at 
Windsor,  the  celebrated  ordinances  of  the  Polig- 
nac  ministry  appeared  in  the  'Moniteur.'  The 
Revolution  of  July  followed,  and  Charles  the  X. 
was  an  exile  in  England.  By  the  people  every- 
where the  events  of  the  Three  Days  were  hailed 
with  an  enthusiasm  that  knew  no  bounds.  An 
impulse  had  been  given  to  the  progress  of  great 
public  or  national  questions,  which  it  was  seen 
nothing  could  then  resist.  Its  results  were  imme- 
diately manifested  in  the  separation  of  Holland  and 
Belgium,  the  revolutions  of  Poland,  Spain,  and 
Switzerland  ;  and  in  the  modifications  introduced 
into  the  constitutions  of  various  German  States. 
In  England  its  fruit  was  the  Reform  Bill." 

When  the  Whigs  came  into  power,  soon  after 
the  accession  of  William  the  IV.,  an  expectation 
became  general  that  a  great  reform  was  about  to 
be  achieved.  The  largest  portion  of  the  people 
had  always  been  disfranchised,  and  even  the  few 
who  were  not  could  not  vote  with  freedom.  The 
House  of  Lords  and  the  landed  aristocracy  had 
complete  control  over  the  elections.  Earl  Grey 
declared,  in  1793,  when  he  brought  his  motion  for 
reform  into  the  House  of  Commons,  that  "307 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  81 

members  of  Parliament  were  returned,  not  by  the 
collected  voice  of  those  whom  they  appeared  to 
represent,  but  by  the  recommendation  of  154  pow- 
erful individuals,  who  returned  a  decided  majority 
of  the  House  of  Commons ;  and  that  more  than 
150  members  owed  their  elections  entirely  to  the 
interference  of  the  Peers."  Thus  the  people  re- 
mained disfranchised  and  unrepresented. 

Dissatisfaction  with  this  state  of  things  became 
more  and  more  manifest  as  discussion  increased, 
until  at  last  the  people  awoke  in  their  might,  and 
shook  the  whole  fabric  of  society.  Interpreting, 
with  no  uncertain  forecast,  the  signs  of  the  times, 
the  leaders  of  the  liberal  party  did  not  hesitate  to 
declare  that  the  time  had  at  last  come,  when  no- 
thing could  save  the  throne  and  the  constitution 
from  overthrow,  and  the  whole  empire  from  revo- 
lution, but  a  radical  reform  in  Parliament.  Com- 
mittees were  appointed  to  inquire  into  abuses,  and 
well  did  they  perform  their  work.  Meetings  for 
agitation  and  discussion  were  everywhere  held, 
and  crowded  with  excited  men.  The  Press 
brought  its  engines  of  power  into  the  field,  and 
scattered  light  over  the  ranks  of  the  people. 
Truth  was  dragged  forth  from  its  hiding-places 
— corruption  was  stripped  of  its  covering — aristoc- 
racy was  laid  bare,  and  a  mass  of  rottenness  and 
tyranny  exposed  to  the  gaze  of  the  nation,  which 
roused  its  deepest  indignation.  It  became  evi- 
dent to  all,  that  "  something  must  be  done,  or 


82  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

something  would  soon  do  itself,  and  in  a  style  that 
would  please  nobody." 

As  the  Reform  Bill  was  first  proposed,  it  em- 
braced many  beneficial  changes.  It  proposed  the 
disfranchisement  of  sixty  rotten  boroughs,  and  that 
sixty  others  should,  in  future,  return  but  one 
member.  Representatives  were  to  be  given  to  all 
large  towns,  and  every  £10  householder  was  to 
have  a  vote.  These  were  the  general  features  of 
the  bill,  and  "  when  they  became  universally 
known  the  following  day  through  the  press,  the 
whole  people  gave  themselves  up  to  an  intoxica- 
tion of  joy.  Three  nights  of  public  illuminations 
succeeded,  the  only  illuminations,"  says  the  wri- 
ter, "  we  have  ever  seen,  in  which  the  middle  and 
working  classes  spontaneously  and  universally 
adopted  this  mode  of  expressing  their  approbation 
of  the  conduct  of  their  rulers.  The  public  offices, 
the  mansions  of  the  aristocracy,  the  fashionable 
clubs  were  dark  ;  but  every  street  in  the  commer- 
cial part  of  London  and  the  suburbs,  every  lane 
of  humble  tenements,  both  banks  of  the  river, 
from  Chelsea  to  Greenwich,  were  a  blaze  of  light, 
and  the  examples  of  public  rejoicing  set  by  the 
metropolis  were  followed,  not  only  in  the  towns, 
but  in  the  villages  of  the  most  obscure  hamlets  in 
the  United  Kingdom." 

But  the  hopes  of  the  people  were  in  a  great 
measure  destroyed.  The  bill  was  under  discus- 
sion fifteen  months,  and  before  its  final  passage, 
it  was  deprived  of  some  of  its  most  beneficial  fea- 


THE   BRITISH    PEOPLE.  83 

tures.  This  was  a  greater  misfortune,  since  as 
originally  proposed  it  did  not  reach  any  considera- 
ble share  of  the  evils  which  had  called  it  into  ex- 
istence. The  joy  of  the  people  began  to  subside 
when  they  feared  what  has  since  proved  true, 
that  the  Reform  Bill,  as  finally  passed,  was  only 
a  temporary,  but  ingenious  expedient  to  allay 
the  agitation  of  the  times. 

It  was  a  radical  defect  in  the  Reform  Bill, 
that  it  made  no  provision  for  securing  any  fixed 
and  fair  proportion  between  the  number  of  repre- 
sentatives and  the  number  of  electors.  A  few  rot- 
ten boroughs  were  disfranchised  it  is  true,  and  the 
elective  franchise  somewhat  extended  ;  but  Man- 
chester, with  8,000  electors,  and  a  population  as 
large  as  New  York,  sends  no  more  members  to 
Parliament  than  Thetford,  with  only  160  voters. 
No  distinction  is  made  between  Liverpool,  with 
12,000  electors,  and  Chippenham,  with  only  217. 
Harwich,  with  only  181  electors,  returns  as  many 
members  as  the  West  Riding  of  Yorkshire,  with 
30,000.  It  is  still  an  unequal  and  unjust  system 
upon  which  the  House  of  Commons  is  constituted, 
the  mass  of  the  people  are  still  disfranchised,  for 
of  the  total  male  population  of  the  three  kingdoms 
over  twenty-one  years  of  age,  only  one  man  in  six 
is  allowed  to  vote. 

From  Lewis's  "  Four  Reformed  Parliaments," 
and  the  "  Registration  Returns  for  1841,"  I  find 
that  the  total  number  of  electors  in  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  is  only  994,731. — A  large  deduction 


84  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

should  however  be  made,  even  from  this  number, 
Jor  a  plurality  of  votes,  as  the  majority  of  free- 
holders have  at  least  two  votes — one  for  the  bo- 
rough and  one  for  the  county.  This  would  very 
much  reduce  the  number  of  electors.  From  the 
authorities  I  have  quoted  above,  it  appears  that  a 
sixth  part  of  the  constituency  of  the  three  king- 
doms, returns  a  clear  majority  of  the  House  of 
Commons.  While  the  entire  constituency  is  only 

994,731, THREE      HUNDRED     AND     FORTY-ONE 

MEMBERS       OUT      OF      658,      ARE      ELECTED      BY 
164,810    VOTERS  ! 

The    following    Table    prepared   from  these 
works,  will  make  this  clear  to  any  reader. 

MEMBERS    RETURNED.  BY    CONSTITUENCIES    AS    UNDER. 

10            above  100  and  under  200 

28  -  -   -   -  200  300 

52  -  -   -   -  300  400 

22  -  ...  400  500 

28  -  -   -   -  500  -   -    600 

34  -  -   -   -  600  700 

18  -  -   -   -  700  800 
26  -  -   -   -  800  -   -    900 
26----900--   1000 

19  -  ---  1000  -   -   1100 
14  1100  -   -   1200 
13  1200  -   -   1300 
10  1300  -   -   1400 

13  1400  -  -  1500 
7  1500  -  -  1600 

14  1600  .  -  1700 
9  1700  -  -  1800 

341 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  85 

Who  does  not  discover  the  manifest  inequality 
and  injustice  of  such  a  system  of  representa- 
tives ?  An  English  Magazine  has  well  remarked 
that  "  it  is  a  scheme  cunningly  devised  to  defeat 
its  apparent  object."  And  yet  the  British  people 
were  gravely  told  that  the  Reform  Bill  had  brought 
the  representation  of  the  empire  into  such  a  state, 
they  would  remain  fully  satisfied  with  it — it  was 
so  equal — so  just — so  free  from  abuse  of  every 
description.  What  equality  or  justice  can 
27,000,000  of  people  see  in  a  system  that  commits 
supreme  control  over  the  empire — to  a  govern- 
ment composed  of  a  monarch  who  is  taught  from 
childhood,  that  kings  rule  by  a  divine  right,  and 
not  by  human  suffrage — a  House  of  Lords,  whose 
power  is  independent  of  the  people,  and  whose 
princely  fortunes  are  augmented  just  in  proportion 
as  they  oppress  them — and  a  House  of  Commons, 
(the  only  branch  of  the  government  which  the 
people  can  influence,)  a  majority  of  whom  are 
elected  by  164,810  voters,  or  only  one  hundred 
and  sixty-fourth  part  of  the  entire  nation  ?  What 
assurance  have  they,  that  their  rights  will  be  re- 
garded by  a  government  thus  constituted  ? 

But  still  the  nation  looked  for  grand  results 
from  the  Reform  Bill,  for  it  prostrated  the  Tory 
power  for  a  while,  and  gave  the  Whigs  complete 
controul  over  the  popular  branch  of  the  legisla- 
ture. Large  hopes  had  been  excited  by  the  re- 
formed cabinet.  Earl  Gray's  majority  in  the 
House  of  Commons  was  284,  which  gave  the 

VOL.  i.  8 


86  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

Whigs  the  power  of  carrying  any  measure  of  re- 
form the  ministry  proposed.  With  a  power  no 
other  cabinet  had  ever  swayed  before,  or  has  ever 
controlled  since,  they  had  excited  among  the 
people  the  hope  that  the  Reform  Bill  was  only  the 
commencement  of  that  great  change  they  intend- 
ed finally  to  consummate,  which  would  make  jus- 
tice accessible  to  the  poor — encourage  commerce, 
by  removing  those  burdens  that  pressed  upon  the 
springs  of  industry — untax  the  poor  man's  bread 
— introduce  economy  into  every  branch  of  the 
public  administration — cleanse  the  Church  from 
her  corruptions,  to  become  a  blessing  and  not  a 
curse  to  the  people— open  a  school  for  the  poorest 
child  in  Britain — bring  Ireland  at  last,  after  the 
deep  eclipse  of  ages,  forth  into  the  sun-light  of 
freedom.  And  finally,  they  were  taught  by  their 
new  rulers  that  it  would  not  be  many  years  before 
a  final  and  complete  emancipation  would  be 
achieved  for  a  great  empire. 

Feeling  confidence  in  the  Reformed  Parliament, 
the  people  rallied  with  enthusiasm  and  gratitude 
around  the  throne  and  the  ministry.  Reform 
could  now  have  advanced  from  stage  to  stage  with 
acclamation.  But  the  ministry  were  sufficiently 
popular  ;  the  Whigs  had  worked  themselves  into 
power,  and  they  complacently  took  possession  of 
the  spoils,  supposing  their  old  enemies  the  Tories 
had  fallen  never  to  rise.  From  that  hour  to  their 
final  downfall  in  1841,  (although  they  accomplish- 
ed some  things  worthy  of  a  Reformed  Parlia- 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  87 

merit,)  their  legislation  and  policy,  as  a  whole, 
were  not  only  hostile  to  the  interests  of  the  people, 
but  fatal  to  themselves.  Their  popularity  and  their 
power  steadily  declined,  till  at  last,  deserted  by 
the  people,  taunted  by  the  Tories,  and  despised 
by  all,  they  have  gone  down  into  merited  contempt 
— to  atone  to  liberty  for  having  deserted  her  in 
the  hour  of  her  trial. 


WE  WILL  NOW  GLANCE  AT  SOME  OP  THE  ACTS 

OF  THE  REFORMED  PARLIAMENT. — The  first  bill 
Earl  Grey  introduced  into  the  House  of  Lords, 
authorized  the  Lord  Lieutenant  to  proclaim  MAR- 
TIAL LAW  in  any  district  of  Ireland  he  considered 
in  a  disturbed  state.  Of  course  the  Tories  would 
feel  no  opposition  to  such  a  measure,  unless  it 
might  be  to  harrass  the  Whigs,  and  all  parties 
united  "  wi'  right  gude  will "  in  passing  the  law. 
The  first  act  of  the  Reform  Parliament  was  an  out- 
rage upon  liberty.  And  what  excuse  was  pleaded 
in  justification  of  such  an  act  ?  Why,  9000  crimes 
had  been  committed  in  Ireland  in  one  year,  among 
a  population  of  eight  millions,  "not  more  than  a 
quarter  of  whom  are  destitute  of  all  food,  and 
nearly  half  of  whom  have  a  potatoe  a  day ;"  (Sidney 
Smith.)  And  yet  Martial  Law  must  be  proclaimed 
in  such  a  country,  since  one  person  in  a  thousand 
had  perpetrated  a  crime  once  a  year  !  Crime  in- 
creased fast  enough  under  Martial  Law,  one  would 


88  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

think ;  for  we  find  that  in  1840  the  number  of 
criminal  oifences  was  23,000,  (or  nearly  three 
times  as  many  as  1832,)  more  than  a  quarter  of 
which  were  riots,  breaches  of  the  peace,  and  forci- 
ble rescues !  But  nothing  is  said  by  Whig  or  Tory, 
in  these  days,  about  proclaiming  Martial  Law. 
The  most  obtuse  Englishman  has  at  last  disco- 
vered, that  from  the  Irish  heart  bullets  cannot  erad- 
icate that  noble  love  of  liberty  which  has  ever 
dwelt  in  the  green  vallies  of  its  land. 

Ireland  has  experienced  little  relief  from  the 
Whigs.  A  grand  reform,  as  it  was  pompously 
styled,  was  proposed  by  them,  in  the  Church  in 
Ireland.  Of  this  grand  reform,  a  London  Review 
not  long  ago  remarked  :  "  A  little  finger  was  laid 
upon  the  Irish  Church  ;  but  with  a  weight  so  gen- 
tle that  the  plethoric  patient  was  scarcely  conscious 
of  the  pressure,  or  the  public  of  any  relief  from  the 
burden  it  had  endured.  First-fruits  were  abolished, 
and  the  number  of  Irish  bishops  somewhat  re- 
duced." But  what  cares  the  Irishman  whether 
his  tithes  are  extorted  from  him  by  the  proctor,  or 
the  landlord  ?  It  is  as  broad  as  it  is  long  ;  with 
this  exception — that  now  he  is  generally  compelled 
to  pay  his  tithe-money  to  the  landlord  before  his 
pay-day  for  rent  comes,  whereas  before  he  did  not 
pay  his  tithe  unto  the  priest,  until  the  harvest  was 
gathered.  The  "  Reform "  was  a  decided  ad- 
vantage to  the  priests,  if  it  did  no  good  to  the  peo- 
ple; for  the  "successors  of  the  Apostles"  are  now 
humanely  spared  the  trouble  of  selling  every  poor 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  89 

man's  tenth  pig — of  exploring  the  hen-roosts  for 
every  tenth  chicken  and  egg — of  pulling  up  every 
tenth  cabbage  from  the  widow's  garden — and  the 
very  disagreeable,  but  apostolic  job,  of  shooting 
widows'  sons  who  take  it  into  their  insane  heads 
to  eat  the  egg,  or  chicken,  or  cabbage  themselves. 
(See  a  History  of  the  Rathcormac  Slaughter.) 

But  we  must  hurry  through  the  ten  years  of  the 
Whigs.  No  sooner  was  Melbourne  elevated  to 
the  head  of  the  government,  than  his  party  dis- 
graced themselves,  by  enacting  one  of  the  most 
oppressive  laws  ever  framed — a  law  wliich  taxed 
knowledge,  and  made  it  a  crime  worthy  of  the 
most  severe  punishment  to  be  found  diffusing  light 
and  intelligence  among  the  people.  One  would 
suppose  the  lower  classes  of  England  sufficiently 
ignorant  already,  if  we  can  believe  what  is  said 
about  them,  by  their  friends  as  well  as  their  ene- 
mies. 

The  Stamp  Duty,  which  had  so  long  existed, 
was  felt  to  be  a  most  severe  and  unjust  tax,  (Eng- 
lish readers  must  excuse  an  American  for  saying 
a  word  against  stamps  ;  we  have  come  honestly 
by  our  sensitiveness  in  this  matter.)  It  imposed 
a  tax  upon  an  English  newspaper,  greater  than  the 
entire  cost  of  the  most  expensive  papers  in  New 
York.  A  laboring  man  could  not  purchase  a 
newspaper  in  England  after  his  work  was  over, 
without  paying  a  larger  sum  for  it  than  his  wages 
often  amounted  to  for  the  day's  work ;  3}e?.,  or 
more  than  six  cents,  being  required  by  the  go- 


90  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

vernment  for  every  copy  of  a  British  paper  print- 
ed !  The  people  assembled  in  large  masses  to 
discuss  the  question,  and  poured  their  petitions 
into  Parliament  for  abolishing  the  tax  altogether. 
A  committee,  representing  a  large  and  highly  re- 
spectable meeting  in  London,  waited  upon  the 
Prime  Minister  to  plead  the  cause  of  intelligence. 
Popular  feeling  became  too  strong  to  allow  the 
ministry  to  pass  by  the  question  in  silence  or  con- 
tempt, and  the  statute  was  revised ;  but  the  tax 
was  only  reduced,  and  not  repealed.  A  stamp  of 
from  Id.  to  l^d.  was  laid  upon  all  newspapers, 
(which  made  every  copy  cost  from  2  to  3  cents 
more),  and  to  guard  against  violations  of  the  law, 
several  very  severe  enactments  were  passed, 
which,  as  a  London  Review  well  says,  "  might 
have  served  as  a  good  model  to  the  French  min- 
isters for  the  Fieschi  code."  The  old  law  was 
continually  evaded,  and  it  was  estimated  that 
more  unstamped  publications  appeared  in  Lon- 
don than  paid  duty.  The  new  law  devised  a 
summary  cure  for  this  thirst  for  intelligence.  It 
authorized  the  seizure  of  all  unstamped  papers  and 
the  presses  by  which  they  were  printed,  without 
the  form  of  trial ;  the  simple  affidavit  of  a  com- 
mon informer  could  ruin  any  man  engaged  in  in- 
structing the  people  through  the  medium  of  an 
unstamped  press.  This  measure  was  forced 
through  Parliament  by  the  help  of  the  Tories, 
who  may  always  be  relied  on  in  such  cases.  But 
a  fraction  of  the  Whig  party  manfully  lifted  their 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  91 

voice  against  it,  declaring  that  a  government 
which  would  commence  its  career  by  practically 
announcing  that  the  people  were  unworthy  of  a 
free  press,  was  not  deserving  public  confidence 
and  support.  This  was  the  first  act  of  the  Mel- 
bourne ministry,  equally  oppressive  to  England, 
as  the  Coercion  Bill  had  been  to  Ireland  under 
Earl  Grey. 

This  tax  upon  knowledge  had  no  tendency  to 
allay  the  feelings  of  a  people  who  could  not  for- 
get that  while  Parliament  had  saddled  upon  the 
country  a  debt  of  four  thousand  millions  of  dol- 
lars in  extending  the  foreign  power  of  the  em- 
pire, gratifying  the  ambition  of  political  leaders, 
and  in  clothing  the  privileged  classes  in  ermine 
and  gold,  it  had  never  expended  a  guinea  upon 
the  education  of  the  poor.  The  Westminster 
Review  tells  us,  "  Among  the  most  influential  sup- 
porters of  the  Melbourne  cabinet,  some  of  the 
most  violent  enemies  of  education  were  found." 
Even  members  of  that  cabinet  have  been  heard  to 
say  in  public  companies,  that  "  there  was  too 
much  education  in  the  country  ;  and  defended 
their  opinions  by  repeating  the  old  worn  out  fal- 
lacy that  books  unfitted  the  laborer  for  the  duties 
of  life." 

What  hope  can  the  British  people  borrow  from 
a  government  whose  reformers  talk  in  this  way  ? 
Too  much  education  for  millions  of  the  Saxon 
race !  Too  much  education  for  civilized  men 
anywhere  \  Too  much  education  for  a  being 


92  PRESENT    CONDITION    OP 

made  in  God's  image  !  !  Even  the  Whig  minis- 
try refused  to  do  anything  to  promote  National 
Education,  (if  we  except  a  small  pittance  they 
granted  to  Ireland,)  until  the  ^very  last  year  they 
were  in  power.  "  They  refused,  by  postponement, 
the  opportunity  of  making  an  excellent  begin- 
ning in  establishing  District  Schools  of  Industry 
in  connexion  with  the  New  Unions,  in  place  of 
the  schools  now  held  in  the  Workhouses,  under 
the  most  contaminating  influences.  A  carefully 
digested  plan  for  thus  commencing  the  work  of 
education,  with  at  least  100,000  children  of  the 
lowest  classes,  and  to  which  there  would  have 
been  no  serious  opposition,  was  laid  aside.  Fi- 
nally a  Board  of  Education  was  appointed  for 
England,  but  not  a  Board  independent  of  party, 
like  that  created  for  Ireland,  ten  years  before,  by 
Lord  Stanley,  but  a  political  Educational  Board, 
changing  with  every  change  in  the  cabinet." 

With  what  consistency  can  a  government  which 
has  for  centuries  thus  neglected  the  education  of 
its  people,  talk  about  their  not  being  intelligent 
enough  to  be  qualified  for  the  elective  franchise  ! 
How  happens  it  they  are  not  ?  And  how  long  will 
the  present  discipline  of  the  government  require 
to  fit  them  for  the  duties  of  freemen  ?  From  the 
day  the  Whig  government  came  into  power  till 
the  day  they  gave  up  their  places,  the  lower 
classes  have  been  praying  for  relief  from  the 
burdens  that  oppress  them — and  they  have  prayed 
in  vain.  They  have  gradually  been  giving  up 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  93 

all  hope  of  substantial  help  from  either  of  the  great 
parties,  until  the  conclusion  has  been  forced  upon 
them,  that  justice  never  will  be  awarded  to  the 
mass  so  long  as  they  are  not  represented  in  Par- 
liament. They  have  now  turned  away  from 
kings,  queens,  parliaments  and  reform  bills,  from 
which  they  experienced  so  little  relief;  and  fallen 
back  with  a  confident  and  desperate  resolution 
upon  themselves,  adopting  the  CHARTER  for  their 
rallying  cry.  We  shall  say  nothing  of  Chartism  in 
this  place — it  deserves  a  place  by  itself,  which  it 
shall  have  in  another  part  of  the  work.  The 
Chartists  have  long  ago  been  put  down  in  the 
newspapers,  but  no  where  else.  Says  Carlyle,  "  the 
living  essence  of  Chartism  has  not  been  put  down." 
It  is  easy  to  believe  this  true  when  it  has  swelled 
its  numbers,  in  three  years,  from  five  hundred 
thousand  to  three  millions. 


WE  SHALL  NOW  NOTICE  MORE  SPECIFICALLT 
SOME  OF  THE  BURDENS  THAT  PRESS  UPON  THE 
BRITISH  PEOPLE. 

These  burdens  I  have  no  desire  to  exagge- 
rate. Would  to  God  I  could  believe  they  have 
ever  been  exaggerated  !  for  it  would  then  be  other 
than  with  a  feeling  of  sadness  I  have  taken  up  my 
pen  to  write  out  the  woes  of  some  millions  of  the 
poor  of  our  father-land. 

Before  we  could  be  prepared  for  a  contemplation 


94  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

of  the  distress  of  the  lower  classes,  we  must 
inquire  into  the  laws  which  govern  them,  to 
ascertain  Avhat  agency  these  laws  have  in  produc- 
ing suffering.  If  the  British  Government  have 
not  by  unjust  legislation  incurred  the  guilt  of 
distressing  the  disfranchised  poor,  let  the  world 
know  it,  that  the  blame  may  no  longer  be  charged 
upon  an  innocent  party  ;  and  if  on  examination  it 
shall  appear  the  government  have  enacted  cruel 
and  wicked  laws,  that  have  enriched  the  few  and 
impoverished  the  many,  let  the  world  know  it. 

A  thousand  years  have  passed  away,  and  during 
this  long  period  the  people  have  been  the  victims 
of  unjust  government.  One  race  of  kings  after 
another  has  come  and  gone ;  one  generation  of 
privileged  classes  after  another  has  appeared  on 
the  stage,  and  moulded  the  constitution  and  laws 
of  the  empire  to  suit  themselves.  It  would  be 
strange  indeed,  if  in  the  selfishness  and  pride  of 
power  they  should  not  have  forgotten  the  interests 
of  the  poor. 

In  such  an  estimate  as  this,  we  must  not  pass  by 
the  NATIONAL  DEBT.  In  the  gratification  of  na- 
tional pride  and  ambition — in  the  prodigal  expen- 
ditures of  successive  administrations  for  the  exten- 
sion of  conquest,  building  palaces  for  monarchs 
and  their  favorites — in  the  bestowment  of  estates 
and  pensions  on  the  privileged  orders  of  society — 
and  in  the  maintenance  of  an  immense  military 
and  naval  force  to  extend  the  empire  abroad  and 
suppress  popular  rights  at  home,  England  has 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  95 

since  1689,  (when  the  government  owed  but  £664, 
263)  accumulated  upon  herself  the  enormous  debt 
of  £792,306,442,  for  the  payment  of  the  interest 
of  which  a  sum  no  less  than  £29,461,527,  is 
drawn  from  the  people  every  year.  Yes  every 
twenty-four  hours  nearly  half  a  million  dollars 
are  wrung  from  a  single  nation  to  pay  for  the  past 
extravagance  of  its  rulers.  Of  this  mighty  aggre- 
gate, three  thousand  millions  of  dollars  were  ex- 
pended in  a  single  war  with  their  old  enemies  the 
French  !  Well  knowing  it  was  impossible  by 
direct  or  indirect  taxation  to  raise  the  immense 
sums  they  demanded  in  the  prosecution  of  these 
wars  of  ambition  and  plunder,  the  men  who  con- 
trolled affairs  during  the  reigns  of  William  and 
Mary,  Queen  Anne,  George  I,  II,  and  III,  craftily 
flattered  each  their  own  generation,  that  these  wars 
were  necessary  for  the  public  safety,  and  that  it 
was  too  much  for  those  periods  to  pay  for  their 
own  defence.  They  not  only  appropriated  all 
those  times  could  furnish,  but  stretched  out  their 
hands  and  thrust  them  into  the  pockets  of  unborn 
generations,  and  compelled  the  nnbegotten  to 
provide  not  only  for  their  own  time  when  it  should 
arrive,  but  for  the  extravagance  of  their  ances- 
tors. Thus  these  wily  politicians  at  the  clearing 
up  of  the  storm  of  Europe,  after  the  battle  of 
Waterloo,  had  mortgaged  England  in  an  account 
current  with  herself,  for  civil  and  military  purposes, 
with  a  debt  whose  annual  interest  brings  a  tax  of 


96  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

nearly  six  dollars  a  year  upon  every  man,  woman, 
and  child  in  the  three  kingdoms. 

Before  I  have  done  with  this  great  subject,  it 
will  be  apparent  to  the  reader,  that  every  piece  of 
bread  the  hand-loom  weaver  or  the  orphan  child 
eats,  is  charged  with  a  part  of  the  expense  of  the 
victorious  campaigns  of  Ramillies  and  Blenheim, 
by  the  Duke  of  Marlborough — of  the  castle  voted 
him  by  Parliament— of  the  palace  and  estate  vo- 
ted the  Duke  of  Wellington — of  every  pension 
given  to  the  favourites  of  ministers;  and  a  part  of 
the  price  paid  by  England  for  maintaining  that 
vast  army,  which  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  mea- 
sured swords  on  the  fields  of  Europe  with  the 
son  of  the  public  notary  of  Ajaccio, — for  to  pay 
the  interest  on  this  debt  thus  contracted,  heavier 
taxes  are  laid  upon  the  labour  of  the  working  man 
of  Great  Britain  than  were  ever  laid  upon  the 
working  man  of  any  other  nation  of  ancient  or 
modern  times. 

But  even  this  sum,  vast  as  it  is,  sinks  into  insig- 
nificance, when  compared  with  that  great  amount 
of  direct  and  indirect  taxation  which  weighs  down 
the  people  of  England.  Besides  the  interest  on 
the  national  debt  ($150,000,000)  there  is  expend- 
ed every  year  over  one  hundred  millions  of  dol- 
lars^ making  the  sum  annually  raised  to  adminis- 
ter the  government,  two  hundred  and  fifty  mil- 
lions of  dollars.  This  is  the  first  great  division 
of  English  burdens  I  shall  notice.  It  is  raised  in 
the  most  adroit,  but  after  all,  in  the  most  oppres- 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  97 

sive  manner,  that  the  ingenuity  of  man  could  de- 
vise. The  people  are  not  approached  directly — 
neither  do  the  laws  seem  to  take  this  sum  from 
the  labouring  classes :  but  it  is  one  of  the  plainest 
principles  of  true  political  economy  that  the  bur- 
dens of  every  nation  fall  upon  the  working  classes ; 
that  wherever  the  tax  is  laid,  it  will  in  the  end 
come  out  of  the  toil  and  sweat  of  the  labouring 
man. 

It  will  be  no  difficult  matter  to  show,  that  the 
protective  policy  of  England,  has  long  been  car- 
ried to  an  extent  oppressive  to  the  people  and  in- 
jurious to  the  government ;  that  the  manufactur- 
ing and  commercial  interests  of  the  nation  have 
already  suffered  from  it  most  severely  ;  and  that 
unless  many  of  the  restrictions  placed  upon  com- 
merce be  speedily  removed,  the  day  is  already 
past  from  which  England  will  hereafter  date 
the  decline  of  her  commercial  strength. 

In  our  inquiries  it  will  not  be  so  much  a  ques- 
tion of  politics  as  of  humanity.  So  long  as  Eng- 
lish warehouses  are  rilled  with  manufactured 
goods,  and  the  markets  of  the  world  are  already 
glutted  with  them,  it  would  matter  little  that  half 
the  manufactures  of  Great  Britain  were  for  the 
time  broken  down  by  the  present  commercial  em- 
barrassment of  the  nation,  if  this  prostration  was 
not  so  severely  felt  by  the  great  multitude  who 
are  dependent  upon  their  labour  for  daily  bread. 
But  when  the  suspension  of  a  factory,  involves 
the  hunger  and  destitution  of  the  operatives  who 

VOL.  i.  9 


9#  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

are  turned  away,  we  think  less  of  the  capitalist 
who  leaves  his  business  to  collect  his  bills,  and 
then  goes  to  his  country-seat,  or  up  to  London,  to 
luxuriate  upon  his  already  ample  fortune,  until 
the  times  become  better — than  we  do  of  the 
gloomy  crowds  of  operatives  he  has  left  behind 
him  to  starve. 

The  question  often  arises  in  this  country,  why 
it  is  that  in  a  nation  of  such  abounding  resources 
and  opulence,  millions  should  suffer  for  the  ne- 
cessaries of  life.  Unless  the  world  were  so  slow 
to  learn  wisdom,  it  would  be  too  late  in  the  day 
to  attempt  to  prove  what  must  be  self-evident  to 
every  man  who  will  think  for  himself,  that  either 
folly  or  injustice  must  characterize  the  govern- 
ment of  a  nation  possessed  of  England's  wealth 
and  power,  when  such  vast  numbers  of  her  people, 
strong,  able-bodied,  willing  to  labour,  are  suffering 
the  pains  of  hunger.  I  do  not  pretend  to  say  that 
it  is  possible  for  any  government  to  prevent  the 
recurrence  of  seasons  of  commercial  and  agricul- 
tural embarrassment ;  these  crises  will  occur  un- 
der the  wisest  administration  ;  for  they  often  de- 
pend upon  causes  beyond  the  reach  of  legislation. 
But  I  do  say,  that  in  a  nation  where  so  large  a 
portion  of  the  labouring  class  perpetually  suffer 
for  want  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  a  great  wrong 
must  exist  somewhere  ;  and  that  the  entire  eco- 
nomy of  the  British  government  has  a  direct  and 
positive  tendency  to  impoverish  the  working 
man,  and  reduce  him  and  his  family  at  last  to 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  99 

starvation.  Even  such  acknowledgments  are 
sometimes  forced  from  the  aristocracy  themselves. 
Says  the  Quarterly  Review,  (No.  29,)  "  In  the 
road  that  the  English  labourer  must  travel,  the 
poor-house  is  the  last  stage  on  the  way  to  the 
grave."  And  in  glancing  at  the  alarming  aspect 
which  every  where  meets  the  eye  of  an  observ- 
ing Englishman,  the  same  Review  says,  all  this 
"  is  chiefly  owing  to  a  radical  defect  in  the  con- 
stitution of  the  British  government." 

A  brief  review  of  the  principal  items  of  the 
crushing  system  of  taxation  to  which  the  British 
people  have  long  been  subjected,  will  make  it  cease 
to  be  a  matter  of  astonishment  that  such  appalling 
misery  prevails  over  the  British  islands. 


THE  BRITISH  TARIFF. — "  From  a  very  distant 
period,  customs  duties  have  been  charged  on  most 
articles  imported  into,  or  exported  from  England  • 
and  though  inconsiderable  at  first,  they  increased 
with  the  increase  of  civilization  and  commerce,  till 
they  long  ago  formed  one  of  the  most  copious 
sources  of  the  public  revenue,  and  now  have  at- 
tained to  an  extraordinary  magnitude." — (M'Cul- 
loch.)  In  1596,  the  revenue  derived  from  cus- 
toms duties  was  only  £50,000.  In  1792,  only 
£4,409,000;  while  in  1839  it  had  swelled  to 
£22,962,610.  The  schedule  of  the  last  Customs 
Act  (3  &  4  William  IV.  c.  30,)  contained  1150  arti- 


100  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

cles  subject  to  duty ;  and  of  this  number  seven- 
teen alone  produced  £21,700,630,  in  1839  ;  while 
the  remaining  number,  1133,  produced  only 
£1,261,980,  or  scarcely  enough  to  cover  the  ex- 
pense of  collecting  the  duties.  The  following  list 
of  these  seventeen  articles,  and  the  revenue  they  af- 
ford the  government,  with  other  statistics  here  given , 
I  derive  from  Sir  Henry  ParnelFs  "  Financial  Re- 
form," fourth  edition,  London,  and  from  the  "Re- 
port of  the  Committee  appointed  by  the  House  of 
Commons,  to  inquire  into  the  Customs,  &c. — Folio, 
1840." 

1  Sugar  and  Molasses          -        -        -  £4,827,018 

2  Tea 3,658,800 

3  Tobacco 3,495,686 

4  Rum,  Brandy,  &c.   -        -        -        -  2,615,443 

5  Wine 1,849,709 

6  Timber      ......  1,603,194 

7  Corn 1,098,779 

8  Coffee 779,114 

9  CottonWool 416,257 

10  Silk  Manufactured  Goods  247,362 

11  Butter 213,077 

12  Currants 189,291 

13  Tallow      -  182,000 

14  Seeds 145,323 

15  Sheep's  Wool 139,770 

16  Raisins 134.589 

17  Cheese 105,218 

17  articles  producing  £21,700,630 

I  shall  not  attach  any  importance  in  this  esti- 
mate to  duties  chargeable  on  articles  of  luxury,  or 
those  that  are  pernicious.  From  motives  of  hu- 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  101 

manity,  I  do  not  object  to  any  duty,  however  high, 
upon  wines,  distilled  spirits,  silks,  and  similar  arti- 
cles, for  the  comfort  and  morals  of  the  poor  receive 
no  advantage  from  them.  But  when  human  laws 
infringe  upon  the  happiness  of  large  classes  of 
men,  and  by  increasing  the  price  of  the  necessa- 
ries of  life,  inflict  suffering  on  the  poor,  I  cannot 
be  silent.  All  such  legislation  is  unjust. 

We  must  not  only  consider  the  effect  upon  the 
labouring  classes,  of  the  duties  levied  for  the  pur- 
pose of  REVENUE  upon  articles  of  prime  neces- 
sity',  but  the  effect  of  duties  levied  solely  for  PRO- 
TECTION ;  for  sustaining  monopoly,  and  augment- 
ing the  incomes  of  the  favored  classes,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  rest  of  the  community.  Unless  we 
extend  our  calculation  beyond  the  amount  col- 
lected by  customs,  we  shall  have  a  very  inadequate 
idea  of  the  real  burden  imposed  on  the  people. 
For  example ;  the  duties  collected  on  the  CORN 
imported  in  1839,  were  only  a  little  more  than 
$5,000,000  ;  but  as  it  will  hereafter  be  shown, 
(see  First  Book,)  this  was  not  one  twentieth  part 
of  the  bread-tax  that  very  year — for  before  one 
pound  went  into  the  revenue  from  the  duty  on 
corn,  its  price  in  England  had  risen  to  double 
that  on  the  Continent. 

Of  the  seventeen  duties  mentioned,  yieldingnearly 
all  the  revenue,  only  tea,  tobacco,  wine,  cotton  wool, 
currants,  and  raisins,  were  imported  for  revenue 
alone  :  the  remainder  were  levied,  not  to  protect 
domestic  industry,  but  domestic  and  colonial  capi- 
9* 


102  PRESENT    CONDITION   OF 

talists  and  land  owners  from  foreign  competition. 
In  the  schedule,  "there  are,  first,  84  duties  on  foreign 
colonial  productions"  says  the  Edinburgh  Re- 
view, (Jan.  1841 ;)  "  secondly,  duties  on  foreign 
manufactures  of  cotton,  silk,  wool,  flax,  hemp, 
glass,  paper,  soap,  earthenware,  metals,  jewelry, 
blacking,  ink,  and  every  other  kind  of  manufac- 
ture, however  trivial  and  unimportant ;  and 
thirdly,  duties  on  com,  flour,  hops,  malt,  butter, 
cheese,  bacon,  pork,  tongues,  beef,  fish,  tallow, 
horses  and  asses,  spirits,  beer,  cider,  perry,  fruits, 
vegetables,  hay,  seeds,  iron,  copper,  tin,  lead,  and 
the  ores  of  these  metals.  The  importation  of  cat- 
tle, sheep,  and  swine,  is  altogether  prohibited. 
This  last  list  shows  with  what  zeal  those  who  are 
invested  by  the  constitution  with  the  power  of 
making  laws,  have  used  that  power  to  promote, 
by  every  practical  means,  the  interests  of  the  own- 
ers of  landed  property.  The  object  of  each  of 
these  duties  is  to  keep  up  the  rent  of  land,  by  pre- 
venting the  prices  of  agricultural  produce  from  be- 
ing lowered  by  the  importation  of  foreign  produce." 
The  same  writer  adds,  with  much  force :  "In  what- 
ever degree  the  duties  effect  this,  they  injure  those 
who  live  by  industry ;  because  the  higher  price 
that  is  thus  maintained,  is  paid  either  out  of  the 
wages  of  labor  or  the  profit  of  capital,  and  they 
benefit  only  the  proprietors  of  land  and  tithes. 
Nothing,  therefore,  can  be  more  inconsistent  with 
justice,  than  this  scheme  of  legislation — a  scheme 
for  the  advantage  of  comparatively  a  few,  at  the 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  103 

expense  of  nearly  the  whole  community ;  and  with 
respect  to  the  prosperity  of  the  country  in  industry 
and  wealth,  nothing  can  be  more  inconsistent  with 
all  sound  principles.  Sound  reform  is  clearly 
wanted.  The  public  interest  imperatively  re- 
quires, that  every  nation  should  have  liberty  to 
send  us  every  kind  of  food  at  the  lowest  possible 
price." 

If  England's  policy  had  been  guided  by  such 
enlightened  philosophy  as  this,  we  should  search 
in  vain  for  the  evidence  of  decline  and  prostration, 
that  now  meet  our  eye  wherever  we  look  over  the 
kingdom. 

THE  DUTIES  ON  SUGAR,  in  1840,  were  £4,465, 
044.,  or  twenty-two  millions  of  dollars.  The  duty 
on  sugar  produced  in  the  British  Colonies  is  24s. 
per  cwt. ;  the  duty  on  all  other  sugar  is  63s.  !  mak- 
ing every  pound  used  in  Great  Britain  costjiftee?i 
cents  more  than  it  would  without  the  restriction  ! 
This  has  excluded  all  sugar  grown  by  other  na- 
tions, (except  a  trifle  imported  in  1841,)  and  giv- 
ing to  the  British  monopolists  the  power  of  com- 
pelling the  poor  to  pay  them  any  price  they  please 
to  ask,  or  to  go  without  it  altogether.  "  The  loaf 
sugar,"  says  Mr.  Lechford,  in  the  Report  of  the 
Committee  of  which  I  have  spoken,  "  which  I 
used  to  buy  at  72s.,  I  am  now  paying  114s.  for ; 
and  the  moist  sugar  for  which  I  used  to  pay  52s. 
I  am  now  paying  84s.  and  86s.  for ;  and  we  are  in- 
formed the  price  will  be  still  higher." 

We  learn  from  this  report,  that  in  1820  the 


104  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

amount  of  sugar  consumed  in  the  United  King- 
dom and  Ireland  was  92,301  cwt.,  more  than  in 
1839,  although  the  population  had  increased  over 
four  millions  !  This  Report  states  too,  that  the 
consumption  of  sugar  in  Paris  and  Vienna  is  dou- 
ble the  amount  consumed  in  England  in  propor- 
tion to  the  population.  The  reason  of  this  differ- 
ence is  apparent.  The  poor  Englishman,  or 
Scotchman,  or  Irishman  can  make  no  extensive  use 
of  sugar,  when  he  is  compelled  to  pay  three  or 
four  times  as  much  as  it  costs  in  the  United  States. 
The  West  India  Islands  export  their  sugar  to 
New  York,  and  after  paying  the  small  duty  levied 
by  our  Government,  sell  it  to  us  for  5,  6,  and  7 
cents  per  pound.  They  would  do  the  same  to 
England  were  it  not  for  the  enormous  duty  re- 
quired ! 

It  is  the  opinion  of  the  friends  of  free-trade  in 
England,  that  the  consumption  of  sugar  would 
increase  from  100  to  200  per  cent.,  were  the  duties 
no  higher  than  in  this  country.  But  what  cares 
the  British  monopolist,  if  the  poor  man  is  deprived 
of  the  common  comforts  of  life  ? 

COFFEE.  The  revenue  derived  from  this  arti- 
cle in  1840,  was  £922,468,  or  four  and  a  half  mil- 
lion dollars.  This  Report  states  that  the  duties 
on  Coffee  are  so  high,  "  they  raise  the  price  of  it 
80  per  cent,  in  England  above  its  price  in  any  of 
the  states  of  Europe."  The  duty  on  the  coffee  of 
the  British  colonies  is  60?.  or  11  cents  per  lb., 
(equal  to  the  entire  cost  of  it  in  New  York.)  On 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  105 

that  of  all  other  countries,  Is.  3d.  (or  three  times 
the  entire  cost  of  it  in  New  York.)  This  makes 
every  Ib.  of  coffee  consumed  cost  30  cents  more  in 
consequence  of  monopoly.  There  are  25,000,000 
Ibs.  consumed  annually  in  the  three  kingdoms, 
but  as  most  of  it  is  brought  from  the  colonies, 
upon  which  the  duty  is  only  6d.  per  Ib.,  the  reve- 
nue receives  less  than  a  million  sterling.  It  fol- 
lows, therefore,  that  the  consumer  is  compelled  to 
pay  as  high  a  tax  to  the  colonial  monopolists,  as 
he  pays  to  the  government  for  a  duty. 

TEA.  The  revenue  derived  from  this  article  in 
1840,  was  £3,473,963,  or  about  seventeen  million 
dollars.  The  heaviest  duties  have  for  a  long 
time  been  imposed  upon  tea.  Under  the  reign  of 
the  East  India  monopoly,  "  the  duty,  was  in  fact, 
about  200  per  cent,  ad  valorem"  or  three  times 
as  much  as  the  original  cost.  The  ad  valorem 
duties  in  1834,  and  at  present  the  duties  are 
charged  as  follows  : — 

On  Bohea per  Ib.     1     6 

"    Congou,    Twankay,    Hyson-Skin,     \     n    n 
Orange,    Pekoe,    and    Campol       j 

"    Soushong,    Hyson,    Young-Hyson,    ) 

Gunpowder,    Imperial,     and    all   >     30 
others  not  enumerated         -        -  j 

"  If  we  compare  the  duties  with  the  prices  at 
New  York  and  Hamburg,  they  will  be  found  to 
be  exceedingly  heavy,"  (M'Culloch.)  "  The  price 
of  bohea  in  the 'New  York  market,"  says  the 
American  edition  of  M'Culloch,  "in  1834,  was 


106  PRESENT     CONDITION    OF 

from  13,  to  16  cents  per  Ib,"  or  less  than  half  the 
duty  in  England.  "  To  impose  such  a  duty  on 
an  article,  fitted  to  enter  largely  into  the  consump- 
tion of  the  lower  classes,  seems  to  be  in  the  last 
degree  oppressive  and  absurd."  (M'Culloch.) 
"VVe  are  not  left  to  speculate  on  the  effect  of  such 
extravagant  duties  in  raising  the  price,  and  conse- 
quently diminishing  the  consumption,  of  these 
articles  among  the  lower  classes, — the  report  fur- 
nishes us  with  facts. 

"  The  company,  by  reducing  the  price  of  tea 
from  about  2s.  6d.  to  Is.  10:jd.  per  Ib.,  (which  was 
of  course  accompanied  by  a  corresponding  reduc- 
tion of  duty,)  increased  the  consumption  from  1, 
873,881  Ibs.  in  1822—23,  to  6,474,838  Ibs.  in  1831 
— 32.  Here  we  have  consumption  more  than  trebled 
by  a  fall  of  about  Is.  3d.  per  Ib.  And  we  have 
not  the  slightest  doubt,  that  a  further  fall  of 
Is.  3d.  would  by  bringing  the  article  fairly  with- 
in the  command  of  a  vastly  greater  number 
of  consumers,  extend  the  demand  for  it  in  a 
much  greater  degree."  (Report.)  M'Culloch 
also  has  one  remark  on  this  subject  worthy  of 
special  notice :  "  We  may  also  add  that  nothing' 
would  do  so  much  to  weaken  the  pernicious  habit 
of  gin-drinking,  as  a  fall  in  the  price  of  tea, 
coffee,  &c."  The  committee  spoken  of,  feeling 
that  facts  on  this  point  were  desirable,  examined 
the  keepers  of  five  principal  coffee-houses  in  Lon- 
don. There  were  only,  they  state,  a  dozen  of 
these  houses  in  London  twenty-five  years  ago — 


THE  BRITISH  PEOPLE.         107 

their  present  number  is  nearly  2000,  and  increas- 
ing at  the  rate  of  100  a  year.  The  price  varies  at 
these  houses  from  Id.  to  3d.  a  cup  for  coffee  ;  and 
one  of  these  keepers  who  charges  l£d.  stated  to 
the  committee,  that  he  had  from  1,500  to  1,800 
persons  daily  at  his  house.  The  following  is  the 
evidence  of  Mr.  Lechford  :  "  Does  a  man  come  and 
obtain  breakfast  ?  Yes ;  he  comes  in  the  morning 
at  four  o'clock,  and  has  a  cup  of  coffee,  a  thin  slice 
of  bread  and  butter,  and  for  that  he  pays  \~d ; 
and  then  again  at  eight,  for  his  breakfast,  he  has 
a  cup  of  coffee,  a  penny  loaf  and  a  penny  worth 
of  butter,  which  is  3d.  and  at  dinner  time  instead 
of  going  to  a  public-house,  at  one  o'clock  he  comes 
in  again.  Would  a  reduction  in  the  duties  on 
coffee  and  sugar  be  a  great  and  important  advan- 
tage to  the  classes  of  society  that  resort  to  your 
house?  Most  material.  And  that  too  in  a  moral 
point  of  view,  as  well  as  with  regard  to  their 
pecuniary  means  ?  Most  decidedly.  Then  those 
societies  which  formerly  met  in  public-houses,  are 
now  gradually  resorting  to  coffee-houses  ?  They 
are,  particularly  at  the  east  end  of  the  town ;  I 
believe  that  not  one-third  of  my  customers  ever 
go  into  a  public  house  at  all.  These  witnesses 
complain  bitterly  of  the  pressure  of  the  present 
high  prices  of  coffee  and  sugar  on  their  trade ;  and 
say  that  if  they  continue,  they  will  be  compelled 
to  raise  the  price  of  coffee ;  and  thus  take  a  step 
which  will  have  a  very  bad  effect  in  checking  the 
habit  of  drinking  coffee  in  preference  to  beer  and 


108  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

spirits.  They  say,  on  the  contrary,  if  the  duties 
were  lowered,  the  consumption  of  coffee  would 
soon  be  five  times  greater  than  it  now  is ;  and 
that  this  is  not  an  extravagant  anticipation,  is 
shown  by  the  fact,  that  in  Ireland  coffee  is  now 
sold  in  place  of  whiskey,  in  the  public-houses  in 
the  districts  under  Father  Mathew's  influence." 
The  Edinburgh  Review,  estimates  that  the  con- 
sumption of  coffee  would  increase  from  25,000,000 
Ibs.  to  100,000,000,  even  if  the  duty  'were  re- 
duced to  6d. :  and  that  the  revenue  from  it  would 
also  increase. 

But  there  are  some  economists  who  think  that 
sugar,  molasses,  tea  and  coffee  do  the  poor  more 
harm  than  good — arid  it  cannot  be  considered 
oppressive  to  place  them  by  taxation  beyond  their 
reach  !  What  will  such  persons  say  of  the  taxes 
upon  MEAT  AND  BREAD  ? 

The  importation  of  cattle,  sheep,  and  swine, 
being  prohibited,  and  heavy  duties  which  amount 
almost  to  prohibition  being  laid  on  every  other 
kind  of  meat,  this  great  necessary  of  human  life 
has  been  nearly  placed  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
lower  classes.  The  English  are  called  a  beef- 
eating  nation ;  a  portion  of  them  are,  but  to  apply 
this  epithet  to  some  millions  of  the  lower  classes,  is 
as  great  a  misnomer  as  can  well  be  conceived;  and 
as  for  the  Irishman,  why  every  body  knows  that 
his  piece  of  beef  generally  turns  out  to  be  a  potatoe. 

In  giving  his  evidence  before  the  committee, 
Dr.  Bowring  says  :  "  I  have  made  an  estimate  of 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  109 

the  probable  amount  of  taxes  levied  on  the  people 
of  this  country,  by  the  inhibition  of  the  import  of 
butchers'  meat.  I  have  grounded  it  on  the  only 
country  where  I  have  got  any  thing  approximating 
as  to  consumption.  Prussia  consumes  465,000,000 
Ibs.  of  butchers'  meat,  with  a  population  of  about 
14,000,000.  I  estimate  that  the  consumption  of 
butchers'  meat  in  this  country  cannot  be  less  than 
50  Ibs.  per  head,  per  annum ;  it  has  been  fre- 
quently estimated  at  double.  Now,  this  in 
25,000,000  of  consumers  makes  a  consumption  of 
1,250,000,000  Ibs.  per  annum.  If  the  prohibition 
of  foreign  cattle,  and  foreign  butchers'  meat,  only 
raised  the  price  here  one  penny  a  pound,  it  will  be 
found  that  there  is  an  indirect  taxation  of  more 
than  £5,000,000  levied  upon  the  community.  If 
the  added  value  is  2d.  a  pound,  which  I  am  dis- 
posed to  think  is  nearer  the  truth,  it  will  be  then 
seen  that  £10,000,000  are  taken  from  the  commu- 
nity, in  consequence  of  the  prohibition  of  foreign 
meat ;  and  if  that  should  appear  correct,  which 
many  statisticians  have  considered  as  the  average 
of  consumption  in  this  country,  (viz.)  100  Ibs.  per 
annum,  that  is,  about  one-third  of  a  pound  per  day 
per  individual — if  the  consumption  be  as  great  as 
that,  then  a  sum  of  £20,000,000  is  levied  annually 
upon  the  consumer,  upon  that  article  alone.1'  I 
have  been  assured  by  the  largest  dealers  in  pro- 
visions in  New- York  and  Boston — men  who  were 
familiar  with  the  prices  of  every  description  of 
meat  in  England  and  in  this  country — that  they 
VOL.  i.  10 


110  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

could,  after  paying  all  the  expense  of  transporta- 
tion, deliver  all  kinds  of  American  meat  in  London 
at  less  than  one-half  its  average  price  there  for  the 
last  twenty  years,  if  it  were  not  for  the  heavy  du- 
ties it  is  compelled  to  pay.  If  this  be  so,  the  tax 
paid  by  the  British  people,  in  consequence  of  the 
duty  upon  meat,  is  far  greater  than  Dr.  Bowring's 
highest  estimate.  The  Edinburgh  Review  says  that 
not  less  than  a  fourth  part  of  every  man's  expen- 
diture on  these  articles  that  are  protected,  is  paid 
to  uphold  the  monopolists,  besides  that  portion 
which  goes  to  the  revenue. 


CORN  LAWS. — I  have  so  fully  entered  into  the 
statistics  of  the  Corn  Laws  in  my  former  work, 
(see  Glory  and  Shame  of  England,  2d.  vol.  p.  230,) 
and  as  I  shall  also  have  occasion  to  refer  again  to 
the  subject  in  the  Fourth  Book  of  these  volumes, 
that  I  will  here  only  give  the  result  of  these  calcu- 
lations. Those  who  are  informed  on  this  subject, 
as  every  person  should  be  before  he  is  qualified  to 
give  an  intelligent  opinion,  will  not  charge  me 
with  extravagance,  carelessness,  or  error,  when  I 
make  the  assertion,  that  the  average  price  of  wheat 
and  all  other  grains  in  Great  Britain,  for  the  last 
thirty  years,  has  been  double  the  price  in  the  Ame- 
rican and  continental  markets  during  the  same  pe- 
riod. This  statement  can  be  abundantly  substan- 
tiated, by  referring  to  M'Culloch's  Statistics — Par- 
liamentary Reports,  containing  the  returns  of  the 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  Ill 

Corn  Receivers — the  Statistics  of  Mr.  J.  R.  Porter, 
Mr.  J.  M'Gregor,  Mr.  J.  D.  Hume,  and  Dr.  Bow- 
ring,  than  whom  no  men  in  the  world  have  paid 
more  attention  to  the  subject,  or  had  better  facilities 
for  arriving  at  the  truth.  These  same  authorities 
estimate  that  12s.  per  quarter  will  pay  all  the  ave- 
rage expense  of  transporting  grain  from  the  Ame- 
rican and  continental  markets  to  London.  We 
have  then  the  following  result  from  these  calcula- 
tions. 

Average  Price  of  Wheat  per  quarter,  in  )      fij 

London  for  30  years,  up  to  1842          -  $ 

Average  Price  of  the  15  largest  Corn  Mar-  1 

kets  in   Europe   and  America  for  the  >     32s. 

same  time   ------  j 

32s. 
Deduct  Expense  of  Transportation     12s. 

Extra  Price  per  Quarter  by  Corn  Law  Tax    20s. 
This  Tax  on  30  million  Quarters  of  Wheat    £30,000,000. 

This  vast  sum  of  $150,000,000  is  paid  by 
27,000,000  of  people,  every  year,  to  30,000  land 
owners !  As  we  have  already  remarked,  this  is 
only  the  tax  upon  wheat.  The  number  of  quar- 
ters of  barley,  oats,  rye,  peas,  beans,  &c.  consum- 
ed, is  as  great  as  that  of  wheat,  and  estimated  at 
half  the  value.  The  Corn  Caws  apply  to  all 
kinds  of  grain,  and  have  raised  the  price  of  all  in 
the  same  proportion.  It  follows,  therefore,  that 
the  tax  upon  them  is  half  as  great  as  that  upon 
wheat,  (viz.)  £15,000,000  or  $75,000,000.  There 
are  many  other  of  the  necessaries  of  life  subjected 


112  PRESENT    CONDITION    OP 

to  a  high  Tariff,  which  has  a  most  pernicious  ef- 
fect in  placing  them  beyond  the  means  of  the  poor 
to  enjoy.  If  we  had  space  we  should  speak  of 
them  at  length.  Butter,  cheese,  cocoa,  fish,  eggs, 
fruit,  honey,  lard,  tallow,  maccaroni,  onions,  pearl- 
barley,  pickles,  potatoes,  rice,  sausages,  tapioca, 
malt,  tobacco,  &c.  <fec.  These  articles,  with  those 
already  enumerated,  constitute  the  chief  means  of 
human  subsistence  in  the  present  state  of  society, 
and  therefore  mainly  consumed  by  the  poorer 
classes.  Every  one  of  them  are  taxed  and  taxed 
heavily.  Thus  it  is  not  the  means  of  the  people 
that  are  taxed,  but  their  NECESSITIES;  and  hence 
it  is  that  the  rich  grow  richer,  and  the  poor,  poorer. 
These  facts  illustrate  the  truth  of  a  saying,  of  a 
celebrated  London  writer :  "  The  uniform  spirit 
and  tendency  of  the  legislation  of  the  last  quarter 
of  a  century,  has  been  to  shift  the  burdens  of  the 
country  from  the  shoulders  of  those  who  enjoy  its 
emoluments,  and  to  place  them  upon  the  necks  of 
those  whose  only  inheritance  is  incessant  labour — 
labour  so  ill-requited,  as  barely  to  furnish  the  or- 
dinary means  of  subsistence."  This  last  winter 
Lord  Brougham  is  reported  to  have  said,  in  speak- 
ing of  the  connexion  that  existed  between  taxation 
and  suffering,  "  As"  soon  as  you  tell  the  foreigner 
who  lands  on  the  British  shores,  and  witnesses  the 
unparalleled  distress  of  the  lower  classes,  that  go- 
vernment imposes  a  tax  upon  all  the  necessaries 
of  life,  and  the  more  indispensible  the  article,  the 
heavier  the  tax  :  he  must  have  been  taught  in  a 

*  O 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  113 

strange  school  of  political  economy,  if  he  does  not 
cease  to  be  astonished  that  so  much  distress  exists. 
In  our  oppressive  legislation  he  discovers  an  ade- 
quate cause  for  all  this  suffering." 

THE  EXCISE  DUTIES  still  remain  to  be  con- 
sidered.— To  meet  the  extravagant  demands  of 
the  Government,  Parliament  has  been  called  on  to 
exert  all  its  ingenuity  in  discovering  new  schemes 
of  taxation,  until  it  has  become  next  to  impossi- 
ble, to  engage  in  any  business,  profession,  or  pur- 
suit, without  being  followed  by  the  tax  gatherer? 
close  at  the  heels.  "  Excise  Duties,"  says  M'Cul- 
loch,  "  now  introduced  into  England  by  the  Long 
Parliament,  in  1643,  being  laid,  on  the  makers 
and  venders  of  ale,  beer,  cider  and  perry.  The 
Royalists  soon  after  followed  the  example  of  the 
Republicans ;  both  sides  declaring  that  the  excise 
should  be  continued  no  longer  than  the  termina- 
tion of  the  war.  But  it  was  found  to  be  too  pro- 
ductive a  source  of  revenue,  to  be  again  relin- 
quished."— Blackstone  also  has  the  following, 
"  From,  its  first  original  to  the  present  time,  its 
very  name  has  been  odious  to  the  people  of  Eng- 
land,"— "  But  it  has  been  continued  to  the  present 
time,  and  furnishes  nearly  a  third  part  of  the  en- 
tire revenue  of  the  kingdom,"  (M'Culloch),  The 
excise  duties  are  taxes  upon  articles  produced,  and 
consumed  at  home,  and  upon  the  various  kinds 
of  business  transactions  carried  on  in  the  three 
kingdoms — I  have  before  me  a  complete  list  of 
all  excise  duties ;  published  by  the  Board  of  Trade 
9* 


114  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

in  1832 — 34. — But  it  is  too  voluminous  to  be  ex- 
tracted. I  shall  speak  briefly  of  those  features 
only  which  operate  with  particular  severity  upon 
the  lower  classes.  I  shall  omit  any  notice  of  the 
duties  upon  spirits  and  wines — as  O'Connell  re- 
marked when  Sir  Robert  Peel  proposed  in  his  new 
scale  of  duties  to  increase  the  tax  upon  Irish 
spirits,  "  I  make  no  objection  to  that :  you  will  do 
no  harm  to  Ireland  by  making  it  expensive  as 
well  as  contemptible,  to  be  a  brute. — But  God 
forgive  you  for  taking  to  yourself  any  credit  for 
helping  Ireland  by  it." 

But  all  dealers  in  tea,  coffee,  sugar,  &c.  makers 
of  soap,  glass,  vinegar  and  other  articles,  so  ne- 
cessary to  the  comfort  of  the  poor,  are  obliged  to 
pay  large  sums  to  the  government  for  prosecuting 
their  business,  and  the  poor  cannot  escape  their 
influence. 

Tax  the  rich  for  their  plate,  carriages,  horses, 
servants  and  dogs, — but  tax  not  the  light  that 
sends  its  cheering  rays  through  the  poor  man's 
window.  Above  all  tax  not  the  light  God  has 
provided  for  the  soul.  We  must  allude  again  to 
the  STAMP  DUTY.  The  tax  upon  Intelligence, 
above  all  other  taxes,  is  the  most  unjustifiable. 
It  cuts  off  the  possibility  of  diffusing  intelligence 
widely  among  the  humble  classes — by  means  of 
newspapers,  pamphlets,  or  books.  With  that  re- 
gard for  the  interests  of  the  people  so  apparent  in 
every  thing  he  writes,  M'Culloch  makes  the  fol- 
lowing remarks  on  this  subject.  "These  taxes 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  115 

upon  literature,  have  been  carried  to  such  an  ex- 
tent in  England,  as  to  be  in  the  highest  degree  in- 
jurious. They  are  at  once  impolitic,  oppressive, 
and.  unjust :  impolitic,  because  they  tend  to  ob- 
struct the  growth  and  diffusion  of  knowledge : 
oppressive,  because  they  very  frequently  swallow 
up  the  entire  reward  of  the  labours  of  the  most 
deserving  persons  ;  and  unjust,  because  they  are 
not  proportioned  to  the  value  of  the  article  on 
which  they  are  laid,  and  are  indeed  much  oftener 
paid  out  of  the  capital  than  out  of  the  profit." 

These  taxes  consist  of  the  duty  on  paper ;  on 
all  newspapers  ;  advertisements  ;  the  number  of 
copies  of  all  publications  required  to  be  given  to 
the  public  libraries ;  and  the  tax  paid  on  every 
Bible  that  is  printed. 

If  I  had  space  I  should  be  glad  to  say  a  few 
words  here  in  favor  of  the  poor  authors  of  Eng- 
land, who  suffer  greatly  in  consequence  of  these 
taxes ;  but  a  consideration  of  more  importance 
claims  the  brief  attention  we  can  bestow.  In  this, 
as  in  every  other  instance  upon  which  we  have 
dwelt,  the  people  are  the  great  sufferers. 

As  a  general  rule,  all  Books,  Pamphlets,  Maga- 
zines, and  Papers  printed  in  Great  Britain,  cost  as 
much  again  as  they  do  in  the  United  States ! 
How  can  the  laboring  man  be  an  intelligent 
man  with  these  fearful  odds  against  him.  But  of 
all  the  odious  and  unjust  features  of  this  tax  upon 
intelligence,  the  most  unchristian  is  the  TAX 
UPON  THE  BIBLE  !  The  government  has  given 


116  PRESENT    CONDITION    OP 

to  certain  patentees  and  Universities  of  England, 
what  is  equivalent  to  a  Copy  Right  of  the  Reve- 
lation of  God,  and  no  person  in  England  is  allow- 
ed to  print  the  Bible  without  paying  an  enormous 
premium  to  the  monopolists.  Even  the  British 
arid  Foreign  Bible  Society  cannot  print  their  own 
Bibles,  but  are  compelled  to  pay  a  tax  to  these 
monopolists  on  every  Bible  they  sell,  nearly,  or 
quite  equal  to  the  entire  cost  of  manufacturing 
it.  The  operation  of  this  unholy  restriction  has 
been  to  double  the  price  of  every  Bible  sold  in 
England,  and  reduce  the  circulation  probably 
one  half.  I  once  heard  a  slave-holder  ask,  "  What 
sincerity  can  there  be  in  the  taunts  England  is 
continually  hurling  at  Southern-men  for  enslaving 
the  image  of  God,  while  she,  a  nation  which 
maintains  an  Established  Religion  at  an  enormous 
expense,  ostensibly  for  the  religious  education 
of  the  people,  puts  fetters  upon  the  Revelation 
of  God  ?  "  More  easily  asked  than  answered.  To 
enrich  the  universities,  from  which  sectarianism  of 
the  grossest  kind  excludes  every  man  whose  con- 
science is  not  elastic  enough  to  bend  itself  to  a 
church  which,  in  the  language  of  the  Earl  of 
Chatham,  has  "  a  Calvanistic  creed,  a  Popish  li- 
turgy, and  an  Arminian  clergy,"  and  to  fill  the 
pockets  of  the  Q,ueen's  printer,  many  thousand 
families  are  deprived  of  THE  WORD  OP  GOD  ! 
Is  it  thought  I  speak  with  too  much  zeal  ?  Let  me 
then  adopt  the  language  of  a  minister  of  the  Gos- 
pel at  a  conference  of  clergymen  of  all  denomina- 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  117 

tions  in  Manchester,  not  long  since.  "  Is  it  longer 
to  be  endured  that  the  interests  of  an  individual 
shall  stand  in  the  way  of  an  empire?  In  Scot- 
land, where  men  are  few  in  number,  the  Bible  is 
free.  In  Ireland,  with  its  feeble  section  of  Pro- 
testants, the  Bible  is  free.  England  alone  is  in 
the  house  of  bondage.  What  is  the  value  of 
Scotch  or  Irish  freedom  to  circulate  the  Word  of 
God,  compared  with  that  freedom  in  England  ? 
Is  not  this  the  land  of  commerce,  wealth  and  mil- 
lions— the  seat  of  moral  power — the  source  of 
missionary  support — the  dwelling-place  of  all  the 
great  and  philanthropic,  Christian  and  evangelical 
institutions  of  our  times.  Oh  !  what  hardship  is 
Bible  bondage  in  such  a  country  !  Men  and 
brethren,  will  you  not  rise  and  put  on  your 
strength,  and  help  break  its  fetters  ?  *  *  *  Tax 
the  winds  that  waft  our  fleets — tax  the  rain  as  it 
falls  and  fructifies  our  soil — tax  the  light  of  the 
moon  as  she  walks  in  her  brightness — tax  the 
beams  of  the  sun  as  they  are  poured  upon  our 
planet — tax  all,  and  if  it  must  be,  take  all — but 
leave,  O  leave,  and  leave  untaxed,  the  manna  as 
it  falls  ;  and  permit  pilgrims  to  eternity  to  gather 
for  themselves,  at  the  simple  expense  of  collecting 
it,  the  bounty  of  the  Great  Parent  of  Good  ! !" 

When  will  the  rulers  of  the  old  world  discover 
that  man  is  born  with  a  right  to  education  and 
knowledge  as  inalienable,  and  as  Divine  as  his 
right  to  liberty  ? 


118  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

But  woe  to  those  who  trample  o'er  a  mind  : 
A  deathless  thing. — They  know  not  what  they  do, 
Or  what  they  deal  with !    Man  perchance  may  bind 
The  flower  his  step  hath  bruised ;  or  light  anew 
The  torch  he  quenches ;  or  to  music  wind 
Again  the  lyre-string  from  his  touch  that  flew — 
But  for  the  soul ! — Oh  !  tremble  and  beware 
To  lay  rude  hands  upon  God's  mysteries  there." 

THE  LAND  TAX,  is  another  source  of  the  public 
revenue.  It  grew  out  of  the  subsidy  scheme ; 
having  originated  in  1692,  when  a  new  assessment 
or  valuation  was  made  by  which  a  land  tax  of  Is. 
in  a  pound  produced  £500,000  a  year  revenue, 
(Blackstone,  Book  I.  cap.  8.)  "  No  subsequent 
change  has  been  made  on  this  valuation.  The 
tax  which  was  annually  voted,  usually  amounted 
to  4s.  per  pound  of  valued  rent.  In  1798,  it  was 
made  perpetual  at  that  rate,  leave  being  at  the 
same  time  given  to  the  proprietors  to  redeem  it." 
(M'Culloch's  Statistics,  of  the  British  Empire.) 

This  tax  which  at  first  glance  might  appear  to 
come  out  of  the  owners  of  the  land,  who  are  cer- 
tainly well  able  to  bear  it,  after  all  comes  out  of 
the  people ;  for  they  are  the  consumers  of  the 
products  of  the  soil,  and  of  necessity  any  tax  laid 
upon  the  land,  by  raising  the  price  of  its  produce, 
brings  a  tax  upon  the  consumer. 

It  is  in  these  various  ways,  that  two  hundred  and 
fifty  million  dollars  are  annually  raised  to  carry 
on  the  British  Government  and  pay  the  National 
Debt.  If  this  sum  were  raised  by  a  direct  tax 
upon  the  people,  or  rather  the  property  of  the 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  119 

country,  no  objection  could  be  offered  against  it, 
provided  the  unnecessary  expenditures  of  the 
government  were  limited  to  its  real  wants.  But 
under  the  present  system  two  evils  of  great  mag- 
nitude, as  we  have  already  seen,  exist.  The 
property  of  the  country  is  not  taxed  to  support 
the  government ;  but  the  necessities  of  the  people. 
The  burdens  fall  upon  the  majority ;  for  the 
revenue  is  raised  by  taxing  the  necessaries  of  life  ; 
which  renders  it  impossible  for  the  poor  to  escape 
bearing  more  than  their  share  of  the  burden. 
Secondly.  Not  only  does  the  chief  part  of  the 
Revenue  come  from  those  classes  which  are  least 
able  to  bear  it;  but  they  are  forced  to  pay  to 
protect  the  interests  of  the  monopolists  and 
favored  classes,  a  much  greater  sum  every  year 
than  the  revenue  itself  amounts  to.  This  I  fancy 
has  been  already  made  sufficiently  clear.  This 
was  the  opinion  of  Bentham  who  said,  "The  mono- 
poly taxes  amount  annually  to  very  considerably 
more  than  all  those  of  the  government."  In  this 
point  there  is  little  difference  of  opinion  among 
the  friends  of  the  people. 


We  have  now  considered  the  sources  from  which 
the  government  derives  its  revenue,  and  the 
monopolists  their  wealth.  There  are  very  many 
other  considerations  connected  with  the  condition 
of  the  people  of  Great  Britain  which  would  natu- 


120  PRESENT     CONDITION    OF 

rally  come  into  such  a  discussion  as  this — but 
they  must  be  excluded.  Before  we  speak  of  the 
established  church,  we  must  bestow  a  few  pages 
upon  THE  POOR  LAWS  and  their  relations  to  the 
poor:  as  has  been  seen  from  a  former  argument, 
for  several  centuries  a  grinding  legislation  has 
impoverished  the  working  classes  of  the  empire. 
Not  many  years  ago  great  alarm  began  to  be  felt 
at  the  progress  of  this  system  of  impoverishment 
— and  not  without  sufficient  reason.  For  the 
number  of  paupers  it  became  necessary  to  relieve, 
to  save  from  starvation,  had  increased  to  nearly 
one  fifth  of  the  entire  population,  and  the  Poor 
Rates,  (i.  e.  taxes  levied  upon  property  for  their 
support,)  rose  to  between  thirty  five  and  forty 
million  dollars  annually,  being  about  one  fifth  of 
the  income  of  the  land  of  England. 

In  1834,  Parliament  passed  the  "Poor  Law 
Amendment  Act,"  to  remedy  the  evil,  whose  great 
object  was  to  lessen  the  expense  of  maintaining 
the  pauper  population — their  expense  having  be- 
come too  heavy  to  be  borne  ;  and  how  did  Parlia- 
ment go  to  work  to  accomplish  so  desirable  a 
result.  Not  by  removing  restrictions  upon  com- 
merce, and  thereby  increasing  greatly  the  demand 
for  labor — for  these  restrictions  by  depriving 
foreign  nations  of  the  ability  to  purchase  English 
manufactures  to  so  great  an  extent  as  they  desired, 
because  they  could  not  pay  for  them  in  coin,  tim- 
ber and  other  products  of  their  own  soil,  had 
thrown  nearly  one  fifth  of  the  English  people  out 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  121 

of  employment,  compelling  them  to  stand  idle  till 
they  became  hungry  and  naked,  and  at  last  fell 
for  support  on  the  government  that  had  impover- 
ished them.  Parliament  must  have  known  but 
too  well,  that  the  foreign  trade  of  the  nation  was 
being  deeply  injured  by  excluding  from  its  ports 
the  grand  necessaries  of  life  that  abounded  so 
plentifully  abroad  and  she  so  much  needed  at 
home ;  but  the  land  owners  would  not  give  up 
their  monopoly  so  long  enjoyed,  although  it  was 
so  ruinous  to  commerce,  and  indeed  to  all  the 
other  interests  of  the  nation.  They  did  not  deny 
the  evil  which  they  were  called  on  to  grapple  with, 
and  the  path  of  justice  was  plain,  but  they  chose 
to  reach  the  evil  in  another  way,  and  as  the  result 
has  proved,  they  have  reduced  the  Poor  Rates,  but 
only  by  increasing  in  a  fearful  ratio  the  sufferings 
of  the  poor : — they  could  have  abolished  the  Poor 
Rates  altogether,  and  left  all  the  parish  poor  to 
starve,  and  it  would  have  been  only  carrying  out 
the  experiment.  By  the  Poor  Law  Amendment 
Act,  various  arrangements  were  entered  into  by 
which  all  motives  for  applying  for  parish  relief 
were  taken  away  from  the  poor,  until  they  were 
actually  dying  of  want.  Under  the  old  law,  vast 
numbers  of  families  received  what  was  termed 
out-door  relief:  i.  e.  a  small  weekly  allowance 
from  the  parish  authorities,  which,  with  the  avails 
of  their  own  exertions,  enabled  them  to  live. 
One  leading  feature  of  the  new  law  was  ultimately 
to  cut  off  all  such  allowances,  and  this  has  been 
VOL.  i.  11 


122  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

very  generally  carried  into  effect.  The  Report 
of  the  Poor  Law  Commissioners,  dated  May  1st, 
1841,  states  that  this  system  had  been  ordered  to 
be  adopted  in  four  hundred  and  thirty  seven 
workhouses,  and  there  were  only  one  hundred 
and  fifty  one  workhouses  where  the  order  had  not 
been  sent.  The  following  remarks  on  the  inhu- 
manity of  this  course,  appeared  in  the  London 
Times — "  although  the  last  winter  was  unusually 
long  and  severe,  yet  it  would  appear  that  the 
harshest  provisions  of  the  Poor  Law  Amendment 
Act,  were  carried  into  effect  with  unrelenting 
severity,  when  the  rigour  of  the  weather  called 
for  every  modification  of  its  oppressive  enactments." 
If  a  poor  man  with  a  feeble  wife,  and  several 
small  children  now  applies  for  assistance  from  the 
parish,  the  only  conditions  on  which  he  obtains  it 
are,  that  he  goes  to  the  workhouse,  if  it  is  not 
already  too  crowded  to  afford  him  admission, 
where  he  must  first  be  separated  from  his  wife, 
the  sexes  being  placed  in  different  apartments, — 
then  he  must  surrender  his  children  to  the  parish 
officers  to  be  disposed  of  as  they  see  fit ;  generally 
to  be  torn  from  their  parents  and  apprenticed  in 
a  factory  to  waste  away  their  strength  in  its  never 
ceasing  toil,  often  under  a  brutal  master, — or  to  be 
sent  to  the  coal  mines  to  be  tortured  into  a  prema- 
ture grave  by  barbarities  worse  than  are  inflicted 
in  the  middle  passage,  and  compared  with  which 
American  slavery,  even  as  it  has  been  pictured  by 
the  most  crazy  abolitionists,  seems  a  state  of 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  123 

felicity.  I  well  know  what  language  I  employ — 
my  statistics  on  the  collieries  will  make  good  this 
bold  assertion. 

Yes,  the  government  which  enacted  this  law 
reasoned  well  when  they  supposed  that  by  placing 
such  an  alternative  before  the  ten  thousands 
of  wretched  families  of  England,  the  expense 
of  the  workhouse  system  would  be  made  less. 
Strange  would  it  be  if  it  had  not  thus  turned  out. 
The  Poor  Rates  fell  from  £7,500,000  in  1834  to 
£5,110,000  in  1840,  and  it  is  astonishing  they  did 
not  fall  lower. 

A  humane  nobleman  in  the  House  of  Lords  said, 
"  The  Whig  government  boast  of  the  saving  they 
have  effected  by  the  Poor  Law  Amendment  Bill ; 
why,  the  administration  could  have  been  more 
economical  still.  They  might  have  decreed  that 
every  poor  wretch  in  the  parish  workhouses 
should  not  only  sleep  on  straw,  but  make  it  his 
diet,  and  they  would  have  effected  a  greater  sav- 
ing still,  perhaps.  But  for  God's  sake,  let  not  no- 
ble lords  boast  of  an  economy  in  British  govern- 
ment, which  makes  the  workhouse  an  inquisition. 
There  is  a  good  reason  why  the  poor  should  not 
crowd  the  workhouses ;  the  truth  is,  they  have 
been  converted  into  abodes  of  privation  and 
gloom,  which  even  the  starving  pauper  cannot 
tolerate." 

Facts  elicited  by  recent  discussions,  examina- 
tions, and  reports,  have  sufficiently  proved  that 
every  shilling  the  government  has  saved  the  coun- 


124  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

try  in  the  Poor  Rates,  has  been  the  price  of  suffer- 
ing too  horrible  to  be  described.  Not  only  has 
out-door  relief  been  withheld,  but  the  diet  of  the 
workhouses  has  been  so  reduced  to  effect  a  still 
greater  saving,  that  instances  are  not  rare  of  pau- 
pers committing  crimes  in  the  workhouses  for  the 
purpose  of  getting  into  the  jails,  where  they  are 
treated  better  as  criminals,  than  they  were  before 
as  objects  of  charity.  In  the  London  Phalanx, 
of  Nov.  20,  1841,  I  find  a  long  and  able  article 
extracted  from  the  Times,  in  which  this  language 
is  found.  "  Our  readers  are  aware  of  the  innu- 
merable complaints  that  come  up  to  us  from  all 
quarters  respecting  the  insufficiency  of  the  dieta- 
ries adopted  in  too  many  of  our  Union  Work- 
houses. The  dietary  fixed  for  the  Cirencester 
Union  was  so  meagre  and  niggardly,  that  nobody 
was  surprised  at  hearing  that  in  districts  where  it 
was  enforced,  many  of  our  unfortunate  poor  pre- 
ferred dying  under  the  rapid  effects  of  positive 
hunger  at  home,  to  submitting  themselves  to  the 
lingering,  but  not  less  fatal  torments  which  ap- 
peared to  be  the  inevitable  result  in  every  work- 
house where  it  was  tried.  *  *  *  Unfortunate- 
ly it  now  appears,  that  the  London  paupers  com- 
plain almost  as  bitterly  as  the  paupers  of  the  pro- 
vinces of  the  insufficient  sustenance  which  they 
receive  whilst  inmates  of  the  workhouse.  Nay 
more,  so  many  of  them  when  thrown  out  of  em- 
ployment, prefer  the  dietary  of  the  metropolitan 
prisons,  to  the  dietary  of  the  metropolitan  work- 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  125 

house,  that  it  has  become  very  necessary  to  check 
a  custom  now  very  rife  among  them,  we  mean 
that  of  perpetrating  petty  offences  against  proper- 
ty,— for  instance  breaking  lamps  and  windows — 
for  the  purpose  of  ensuring  themselves  a  commit- 
ment to  Bridewell,  where  the  food  is  more  plenti- 
ful, and  the  government  less  harsh  than  that  to 
which  they  must  submit,  if  relieved  in  the  usual 
manner  as  paupers  in  the  workhouse.  What  do 
our  readers  think  is  the  project  which  has  been 
devised  to  suppress  this  growing  evil  ?  Not  that 
of  raising  the  dietary  of  the  workhouse  to  that  of 
the  prison,  but  that  of  reducing  the  dietary  of 
the  prison  to  that  of  the  workhouse  !  Yes,  Sir 
Peter  Laurie  says,  '  That  it  ought  to  be  known 
that  the  Governors  of  Bridewell  have,  at  a  meet- 
ing this  week,  agreed  to  reduce  the  dietary  of  the 
prison  to  that  of  the  Poor  Law  Union  in  its  vicin- 
ity. It  is  found  to  be  desirable  that  the  inmates 
of  the  workhouse  should  not  be  attracted  by  the 
better  food  of  the  prison,  nor  ought  criminals  to 
be  supplied  with  better  food  than  the  poor.'  The 
prison  was  still  left  to  the  poor  as  a  refuge  from 
the  horrors  of  the  workhouse.  Of  that  wretched, 
paltry  fragment  of  hope  they  are  now  bereft. 
Workhouse  and  prison  are  to  be  regulated  in  fu- 
ture on  the  same  principles." 

In  October,  1841,  at  a  meeting  in  Norwich,  in 

St.  Andrew's  Hall,   a  working-man  said,   "My 

name  is  George  Lamb  ;  I  assure  you,  gentlemen, 

as  I  now  stand  here,  if  you  put  me  into  prison,  I 

11* 


126  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

shall  be  glad  of  it,  for  I  shall  have  more  food  there 
than  I  have  now.  I  am  a  native  of  Norwich,  and 
have  worked  for  Mr.  Willet  fifteen  years.  I  know 
the  difference  between  the  discipline  of  the  work- 
house and  the  prison,  having  been  in  both  places. 
I  was  put  into  the  workhouse  in  the  county,  and 
for  getting  over  the  wall  was  sent  to  Walsingham 
prison,  where  my  treatment  was  better  than  in  the 
workhouse." 

From  a  London  paper,  I  find  the  following  ac- 
count of  a  person  who  chose  to  escape  from  Lam- 
beth workhouse  and  die  in  the  street,  rather  than 
undergo  what  she  was  there  subjected  to. 

"  Last  evening  an  inquest  was  held  before  Mr. 
Higgs,  at  the  Edinburgh  Castle,  Strand,  on  the 
body  of  Charlotte  Classen,  aged  sixty-four,  who 
died  at  the  steps  of  a  door  in  White  Hart  Street, 
Drury  Lane,  on  Saturday.  Deborah  Johnson,  a 
witness,  first  knew  the  deceased  three  weeks  be- 
fore. She  then  appeared  very  hungry,  and  some 
tea  and  food  were  given  to  her.  She  appeared  in 
great  want,  and  in  a  very  filthy  condition,  and  on 
Saturday  last  she  called,  and  seemed  in  a  dying 
state.  Witness  had  advised  her  to  go  into  the 
workhouse,  but  the  deceased  said  she  would  ra- 
ther die  in  the  streets  than  go  into  the  workhouse. 
Robert  Booth,  a  relative,  described  the  deceased 
as  having  been  once  in  good  circumstances  ;  she 
had  received  a  good  education.  The  body  was  in 
a  dreadfully  emaciated  state." 

I  could  accumulate  evidence  of  this  kind  which 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  127 

two  volumes  like  these  would  not  contain,  in 
proof  that  the  whole  system  of  the  English  Poor 
Laws  is  at  the  present  time  characterized  by  great 
injustice  and  barbarous  cruelty— that  the  labour- 
ing poor,  and  the  worn  out  poor,  are  by  oppression 
reduced  to  want,  and  that  they  are  refused  all  re- 
lief unless  they  will  go  into  the  work-houses  which 
they  often  regard  as  a  harder  lot  than  to  starve  in 
a  garret,  a  cellar,  or  a  street. 

But  my  object  at  present  was  not  so  much  to 
lift  the  veil  from  the  workings  of  the  Poor  Law 
upon  the  pauper  himself,  as  to  contemplate  the 
burden  which  is  cast  upon  the  people  of  raising 
every  year  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  million 
dollars  to  execute  such  a  law.  Some  one  may  re- 
ply, that  I  cannot  reckon  the  poor  rates  among  the 
people's  burdens,  for  the  poor  rates  are  taxes  upon 
real  estate  ! 

This  reasoning  is  too  shallow  to  merit  a  reply, 
were  it  not  true  that  many  Englishmen  them- 
selves have  not  yet  learned  that  all  taxes  on  land, 
must  in  the  end,  however  they  seemed  to  be  eva- 
ded, fall  upon  those  who  consume  the  produce  of 
land.  Every  tax  the  land  owner  pays,  raises  the 
rental  of  the  land,  and  if  the  rent  is  high,  the  pro- 
duce must  be  high,  so  that  all  these  taxes  reach 
the  consumer  of  bread  at  last. 


THE   ESTABLISHED   CHURCH.  —  In  October, 
1841,  "  the  Norwich  Society  for  the  Propagation 


128  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,"  Lord  Wode- 
house  in  the  chair,  was  broken  up  by  a  Chartist 
mob.  As  one  of  the  clergy  stepped  forth  to  ap- 
pease the  tumult,  he  was  hailed  with  the  shout 
"  we  want  more  bread  and  fewer  priests" 

In  that  shout  was  manifested  the  prevailing 
spirit  of  the  mass  of  the  English  nation  towards 
an  institution  which  has  for  ages  over-shadowed 
the  people  with  its  magnificence  and  oppression. 
Every  where  in  Christendom  the  people  are  be- 
ginning to  discover  that  they  have  long  been  rob- 
bed of  the  choicest  gifts  of  Heaven.  That  not 
only  have  they  been  made  uncomplainingly  to  sur- 
render the  fruits  of  the  earth  to  the  tyrannical 
grasp  of  power ;  but  that  Christianity  itself,  the 
kindest  and  best  provision  Heaven  has  ever  made 
for  the  souls  of  men,  has  been  turned  into  an  in- 
strument for  his  more  complete  degradation.  The 
poor  of  England  hate  the  Church  of  England. 
Its  magnificent  churches  and  cathedrals  are  left 
vacant,  while  the  jewelled  priest  ministers  at  the 
altar.  In  the  time  of  our  Saviour,  the  rich  were 
the  enemies  of  the  church, — the  poor  now  ;  the 
titled  and  the  luxurious  are  its  advocates  and  sup- 
porters, and  the  lower  classes  its  antagonists. 

It  may  be  well  to  inquire  into  the  cause  of  this 
growing  hatred  of  the  poor  towards  the  establish- 
ed church  ;  why  it  is  that  "  more  than  one-half 
of  the  whole  number  of  those  who  profess  serious 
religion,"  (Dr.  John  Pye  Smith)  prefer  to  with- 
draw from  the  establishment,  and  worship  within 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  129 

humble  chapels,  while  they  not  only  bear  the  bur- 
den of  maintaining  their  own  services,  but  are  just 
as  heavily  taxed  to  support  the  church  of  Eng- 
land as  her  own  members  !  Why  it  is  that  Dis- 
senters are  continually  and  more  rapidly  increas- 
ing in  power,  wealth,  and  influence ;  why  it  is 
then,  when  the  bishop  dashes  by  with  his  gorgeous 
equipage,  the  starving  wretch,  as  he  shakes  the 
dust  of  the  chariot  from  his  tattered  garments, 
murmurs  to  himself,  "that  splendor  costs  the 
sweat  and  toil  and  famine  of  me  and  my  bre- 
thren?" Why  is  all  this?  "  There  is  a  reason 
for  it  somewhere."  Christ  came  to  the^oor.  The 
neglected  multitude ;  the  starving  widow ;  the 
abandoned  leper,  were  his  associates.  The  haugh- 
ty priests  shook  their  mitred  heads  at  him,  and 
called  him  a  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners. 
The  elevation  of  the  mass  was  the  grand  design 
of  the  Saviour  and  his  religion — he  came  to  heal 
the  broken-hearted — to  preach  deliverance  to  the 
captive.  Ancient  philosophers  and  heathen  priests 
had  passed  unheeded  by  the  lowly  dwellings  of 
the  poor  and  the  forsaken,  but  the  Son  of  God 
proclaimed  himself  the  Restorer,  the  Comforter, 
the  Brother  of  all  earth's  neglected  children. 
Feeling  that  their  Deliverer  had  at  last  come,  they 
crowded  around  him,  caught  hold  of  his  gar- 
ments, pressed  on  him  in  his  retirement,  and  wept 
at  his  feet,  as  the  Gospel  with  its  new  and  abun- 
dant consolations  was  spoken  in  their  ears. 

All  this  is  felt  by  the  despised  and  depressed 


130  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

classes,  and  if  they  have  read  their  Bibles,  or  heard 
its  truth  preached,  how  can  they  help  contrasting 
"  the  MAN  of  sorrows,"  "the  FRIEND  of  the  poor," 
as  he  wandered  in  poverty  through  the  vallies  of 
Canaan,  seeking  out  the  dwellings  of  the  suffering, 
satisfied  with  the  shelter  that  covered  them  from 
the  storm,  if  he  could  pour  light  and  consolation 
into  their  souls — with  the  proud  prelate,  who  rolls 
upon  his  stately  coach  to  the  House  of  Lords,  to 
vote  against  reform,  or  to  the  doors  of  the  massive 
cathedral,  where  once  a  year  he  tells  the  few  no- 
ble hearers  gathered  there  from  the  fox-chase,  that 
the  Dissenters  are  very  great  sinners — that  the 
Corn  Laws  are  a  great  blessing  to  the  country, 
particularly  to  the  poor  ;  and  that  he  (the  speaker) 
can  trace  back  the  office  of  Bishop,  in  one  unbroken 
chain,  to  the  chair  of  St.  Peter.  It  would  be 
strange  if  the  poor  should  not  institute  the  com- 
parison— it  would  be  still  stranger  if  they  should 
see  much  resemblance  between  the  carpenter's  son, 
with  his  twelve  fishermen,  and  the  monarch  of 
Great  Britain  with  his  princely  bishops. 

Christianity  is  the  purest  democracy  on  earth. 
Man  as  a  living  soul,  and  not  as  a  noble  or  a  king, 
receives  its  attention.  It  seeks  the  greatest  hap- 
piness of  the  greatest  number.  In  its  light  the 
peasant  and  the  monarch  stand  on  the  same  level. 
Now  the  simple  reason  why  the  lower  classes  hate 
the  Church  of  England,  is,  that  it  reverses  the  en- 
tire spirit  of  Christianity.  It  opposes  the  progress 
of  the  democratic  principle  in  which  they  and  the 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  131 

world  are  so  deeply  interested.  It  is  the  most  op- 
pressive aristocracy  in  England.  Its  exclusive- 
ness  and  pomp  equal  that  of  the  nobility ;  while  the 
tithes  and  taxes  it  wrings  from  the  poor  man,  who 
is  struggling  to  live,  render  it  even  more  obnoxious 
than  the  hereditary  aristocracy  itself.  Wherever 
new  churches  rise,  new  burdens  are  created  for  the 
people  around  them.  And  the  clergyman  who  is- 
sues his  warrants  on  Saturday,  to  force  the  collec- 
tion of  his  tithes,  is  not  very  likely  to  win  the  poor 
man's  heart  to  the  love  of  that  Saviour  who  came 
to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  poor,  without  money 
and  without  price. 

I  wage  no  war  against  Episcopacy.  Most 
cheerfully  do  I  concede  to  Episcopalians,  that  free- 
dom of  opinion  I  wish  to  enjoy.  Nor  do  I  wish  to 
be  understood  as  applying  any  of  my  remarks,  on 
the  Church  of  England,  to  the  Episcopal  Church 
of  this  country.  That  Church  I  honor.  But  the 
unholy  alliance  of  the  Church  with  the  State — the 
corruptions  and  oppressions  that  have  grown  out 
of  that  union  and,  above  all,  the  Church  as  an 
enemy  to  the  interests  of  the  working  classes ;  as 
an  adversary  to  the  spirit  of  liberty  in  England, 
will  have  my  uncompromising  opposition. 

There  are  many  reasons  why  the  Establishment 
is  odious  to  the  British  people, — many  reasons  why 
the  poor  hate,  and  will  continue  to  hate  it, — many 
reasons  why  it  should  go  down.  It  is  one  of  the 
last  strong  holds  of  Feudalism ;  .and  whatever 
may  be  the  fate  of  the  Government,  the  Establish- 


132  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

ment  must  be  swept  away.  It  is  a  strong  bulwark 
I  know  ;  it  has  gathered  round  it  the  patronage, 
the  wealth,  and  the  power  of  ages ;  and  it  will 
struggle  hard  before  it  gives  over  the  conflict. 
But  it  is  now  drawn  into  the  field,  and  there  is  no 
retreat  from  the  final  battle ;  neither  is  the  issue 
doubtful.  For  a  spirit  has  been  awakened  in  our 
times  among  the  masses,  which  has  always  in  past 
times  been  confined  to  a  few, — a  spirit  which  will 
not  brook  the  despotism  that  has  hitherto  con- 
trolled the  world, — aspiritthat  clamours  forchange, 
because  change  is  necessary  to  the  advancement  of 
the  race ; — a  spirit  which  has  given  birth  to  the 
grand  improvements  which  have  marked  the  pro- 
gress of  modern  civilization,  and  which  is  deter- 
mined to  blot  out  every  vestage  of  that  vast  prison- 
house,  in  which  humanity  has  slumbered  in  dark- 
ness and  chains  for  six  thousand  years. 

The  simple  reasons  which  induce  me  to  say  that 
the  crisis  of  the  Established  Church  is  at  hand,  are 
two.  First,  the  well  known  and  acknowledged 
fact,  that  it  is  a  system  of  corruption,  aristocracy, 
and  oppression.  Of  corruption,  in  that  the  hier- 
archy riot  on  the  millions  wrung  from  the  labourer, 
and  the  ecclesiastical  emoluments  being  in  the 
patronage  of  political  men,  are  very  often  bestowed 
upon  persons  destitute  either  of  piety  or  morality. 
Of  aristocracy,  in  that  the  bishops  are  ex-officio 
members  of  the  House  of  Lords ;  peers  of  the  realm, 
and  of  consequence,  identified  with  them  in  all 
their  interests,  feudal  tastes,  and  overbearing 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  133 

pride ; — and  of  oppression,  in  that  they  receive  im- 
mense revenues  from  the  people,  and  roll  in  wealth, 
while  the  flock  to  which  they  are  overseers,  pine 
in  want  and  poverty.  Secondly,  that  all  this  is 
for  the  first  time  being  understood  in  its  true  char- 
acter by  the  middle  and  lower  classes  of  England. 

A  lie  may  long  survive  if  it  is  believed  to  be  a 
truth :  but  a  known  lie  must  be  overthrown.  The 
Church  of  England  then  as  it  stands,  connected 
with  the  civil  government,  constituting  part  of  the 
oppressive  system  that  bears  so  heavily  on  the 
multitude,  and  with  whose  fate  seems  interwoven 
the  fate  of  the  government,  claims  our  particular 
attention.  For  the  person  who  wishes  to  under- 
stand the  workings  of  the  social  system  in  Eng- 
land, and  ascertain  with  what  accuracy  he  can,  the 
probable  issue  of  the  crisis  England  is  approaching, 
must  not  overlook  in  his  estimate  an  institution  of 
such  enormous  power — one  so  intimately  allied 
with  the  civil  and  social  structure  of  the  nation  as 
the  established  Church. 

The  assertions  1  have  made  above,  in  regard  to 
the  church,  I  shall  attempt  to  prove  from  her  con- 
stitution and  practise.  It  started  in  sin.  Henry 
the  VIII.  was  its  founder ;  and  if  "  a  corrupt  tree 
cannot  bring  forth  good  fruit,"  we  should  not  ex- 
pect any  thing  but  evil  from  such  a  stock.  The 
history  of  the  rupture  between  England  and 
Rome  misnamed  the  Reformation,  is  a  curious 
affair-,  and  into  it  we  shall  not  go  very  minutely. 
It  is  perfectly  understood  by  all  parties,  that  this 

VOL.  i.  12 


134  PRESENT     CONDITION    OF 

rupture  was  merely  the  effect  of  an  amorous  pas- 
sion on  the  part  of  the  English  monarch.  In 
other  countries  the  Reformation  originated  with 
the  people  ;  but  Henry,  under  pretext  of  scruples 
of  conscience,  (says  Rotteck,  the  keen-sighted 
German  historian)  wished  to  separate  from  his 
wife,  Catharine  of  Arragon,  the  widow  of  his  bro- 
ther Arthur,  who  was  growing  old,  in  order  to 
marry  the  beautiful  Anne  Boleyn,  whose  favour 
he  was  unable  to  obtain  at  a  lower  price.  The 
Pope,  chiefly  from  love  to  Charles  V.,  opposed  the 
divorce,  which  Henry  then  caused  to  be  pro- 
nounced by  his  pliant  clergy.  This  step  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  Papal  excommunication,  and  a  com- 
plete rupture  with  Rome.  Such  was  the  origin 
of  the  Church  of  England  ;  and  as  if  it  were  not 
incongruous  enough  to  have  a  church  start  from 
such  a  source,  the  first  grand  article  in  it  consti- 
tuted the  king  its  head.  A  Henry  VIII.,  a  Charles 
II.,  a  George  IV.,  the  representative  of  Christ  on 
earth  !  The  greatest  murderer  that  ever  escaped 
the  gallows ;  the  most  corrupt  libertine  that  ever 
filled  the  royal  palace  with  courtezans  ;  the  most 
profligate  and  heartless  scoundrel  of  his  times ; 
the  representative  of  the  immaculate  Son  of  God  ! 
Nominating  all  the  bishops,  possessing  a  thousand 
livings  ;  and  convoking  and  dismissing  synods  at 
his  royal  pleasure !  From  such  bold  encroachments 
in  the  outset  on  the  simplicity  and  purity  of  the 
Apostolic  Church,  we  should  expect  to  find  a  se- 
cular, selfish  establishment,  acting  not  for  the  poor 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE  135 

but  the  rich  ;  not  for  the  elevation  of  man,  but  his 
more  complete  subjugation.  Commencing  in  pride 
and  lust,  it  would  necessarily  live  by  extortion 
and  end  in  oppression.  The  extortion  of  the 
church  is  seen  in  its  enormous  REVENUE. 

Not  long  after  the  passage  of  the  Reform  Bill, 
an  invesigation  into  the  condition  and  revenue  of 
the  church,  was  so  loudly  demanded  by  the  peo- 
ple, that  a  commission  on  church  revenues  was 
appointed  by  the  king,  to  inquire  into  the  matter, 
and  present  their  report.  The  king  being  the 
head  of  the  church,  was  the  last  person  in  the 
kingdom  who  should  have  had  any  thing  to  do 
in  the  appointment  of  this  commission  ;  this  was 
proved  by  the  result — for  there  was  not  a  man  on 
that  commission  who  was  not  deeply  interested  in 
concealing  from  the  people  the  real  amount  of 
church  revenue.  Their  report  was  subjected  to 
the  severest  scrutiny,  and  all  parties  were  satisfied 
that  they  kept  back  every  thing  they  were  not 
compelled  to  disclose.  And  yet  this  report,  dated 
June  16,  1835,  stated  that  the  permanent  gross 
annual  revenue  of  the  church  on  the  average  of 
the  three  years  ending  1831,  was  £3,750,000,  or 
,|18,187,500. 

But  this  estimate,  as  the  Report  acknowledges, 
did  not  embrace  the  vast  sums  derived  from 
Glebes,  fines  paid  on  the  renewal  of  leases  of  bi- 
shops' and  other  lands,  Church  Rates,  Easter  Of- 
ferings, fees  on  marriages,  births,  and  burials,  and 
grants  of  Parliament  for  Church  extension,  which 


136  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

must  have  vastly  swelled  the  aggregate.  No  cer- 
tain knowledge  of  the  amount  of  Church  Reve- 

o 

nues  can  be  derived  from  a  report  thus  made  out ; 
not  because  the  King's  commission  did  not  tell 
the  truth,  but  because  they  only  told  a  part  of  it. 
"  This  Report  is  incomplete,"  say  the  Commission- 
ers, '•'  in  that  it  does  not  embrace  all  the  items 
which  would  be  considered  in  a  complete  table  of 
the  Revenue."  So  it  appears  ;  for  instance.  The 
entire  annual  Revenue  of  all  the  Arch-Episcopal 
and  Episcopal  Sees  of  England  and  Wales,  ac- 
cording to  the  Report,  is  less  than  $900,000, 
while  the  London  Times,  which  is  usually  not 
far  from  the  truth  in  such  matters,  said  in  1835, 
that  the  annual  income  of  the  Bishop  of  London 
was  $100,000,  independent  of  fines  imposed  on 
the  renewal  of  leases,  "  which  occasionally  hap- 
pened to  amount  to  a  hundred  thousand  pounds 
at  a  single  windfall,"  as  it  is  called,  and  that  "  the 
income  of  the  Bishop  of  London  will  soon  be  sixty 
thousand  pounds  or  $300,000  per  annum." 

These  statements  I  find  in  Colton's  Four  Years 
in  Great  Britain,  a  work  written  with  great  can- 
dor and  ability,  and  little  liable  to  any  error 
caused  by  prejudice,  since  the  author  is  himself  a 
clergyman  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  Mr.  Col  ton 
also  quotes  some  valuable  facts  from  /.  Marshal? s 
Analysis  for  1835,  the  latest  and  best  authority, 
where  we  find  the  following.  "  The  single  parish 
of  Paddington,  in  the  see  of  London,  yielded  in 
1834,  from  $60,000  to  $75,000,  at  the  disposal 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  137 

of  the  Bishop  for  ground  rents  of  a  part  of  the 
glebe. 

Dr.  Humphrey,  whom  all  will  acknowledge  to 
be  as  incapable  of  any  design  to  mislead  his  reader, 
as  he  is  unlikely  to  be  misled  himself,  tells  us  in 
his  Foreign  Tour  that  the  incomes  of  the  Archbi- 
shops of  Canterbury  and  York  are  over  $250,000, 
and  that  he  was  assured  by  a  gentleman  in  Dur- 
ham, in  whom  he  placed  the  utmost  confidence, 
that  the  entire  revenues  of  that  rich  Diocese  might 
be  fairly  estimated  at  half  a  million  of  dollars. 
Mr.  Colton  quotes  the  following  statements  from 
an  undoubted  authority. 

The  hamlet  of  Mottingham,  in  Kent,  is  liable 
to  pay  annually  the  sum  of  £8  13s.  4(7.  to  the 
Dean  and  Chapter  of  Rochester.  The  Clergy 
had  granted  to  a  Mr.  Clayton,  an  attorney,  the 
power  to  levy  this  sum  on  the  hamlet  in  consider- 
ation of  £250  paid  to  them  once  in  seven  years, 
making  Mr.  Clayton's  annual  payment  about 
£44  7s.  6d.  Mr.  Clayton  for  the  annual  sum  of 
£200,  had  granted  to  a  Mr.  Morris,  a  farmer  in  the 
vicinity  of  Mottingham,  the  power  to  levy  tithes 
on  the  hamlet,  which  has  been  to  the  extent  of 
ten  shillings  an  acre,  making  his  income  on  the 
600  acres  in  the  limits  of  the  hamlet  £300  per 
annum  ! ! 

When  this  gross  abuse  was  fully  understood  by 

the  people  of  the  hamlet,  a  law-suit  was  instituted 

to  rid  themselves  of  the  burden  ;  but  although  in 

the  entire  hamlet  there  was  no  church  or  chapel 

12* 


138  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

of  ease,  or  school,  or  church-service  connected 
with  the  Establisment,  yet  the  Court  decided 
against  the  people  ! 

Now  notice  that  in  the  Report  of  the  King's 
Commission  the  Church  Revenue  from  this  ham- 
let is  put  down  at  £8  13s.  4d.,  while  the  people 
of  the  hamlet  pay  £300  every  year.  This  is  a 
single  case,  but  it  illustrates  as  clearly  as  a  much 
greater  number  which  might  be  adduced  from  the 
ex-parte  and  deceptive  character  of  that  Report. 

Seven  years  ago,  Mr.  Colton  presented  the  fol- 
lowing table  of  Church  Revenues  as  made  out  by 
the  Reformers. 

From  Church  Tithes  -  -  -  £6,884,800 
"  Income  of  Bishoprics  ...  207,115 
"  Estates  of  the  Deans  and  Chapters  -  494,000 
"  Glebes  and  Parsonage  Houses  -  -  250,000 
"  Perpetual  Curacies  -  ...  75,000 
"  Benefices  not  Parochial  -  -  -  32,450 
"  Fees  for  Burials,  Marriages,  Christen-  >  J.QQ  QQQ 

ings,  &c.        -        -        -        -        -.)         ' 
"      Oblations,  Offerings,  and  Compositions  )     on  nnn 

for  the  Four  Great  Festivals  -  -  J  OUlUW 
"  College  and  School  Foundations  -  682,150 
"  Lectureships  in  Towns  and  populous  ) 

places  -  $ 

"      Chaplainships  and   Offices   in  Public) 
Institutions     -        -        -         -        -$ 
"     New  Churches  and  Chapels       -        -       94,050 

Total  Revenues  of  the  Established  Clergy,  £9,459,565 

Or  $45,405,912  ! !  As  the  great  proportion  of  this 
sum  comes  from  tithes,  and  the  value  of  tithes 
depends  on  the  price  of  corn,  the  revenues  of  the 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  139 

church  must  have  been  much  greater  for  the  last 
seven  years — for  the  price  of  corn  since  1834  has 
been  nearly  doubled  in  England.  Besides  in  this 
estimate,  Mr.  Colton  has  omitted  several  points. 
He  says — "  If  we  add  the  church  rates,  somewhat 
more  than  half  a  million,  which  item  has  not  been 
noticed,  the  cost  of  litigation  between  the  people 
and  the  clergy,  and  the  building  of  new  churches 
out  of  the  appropriation  by  Parliament  of  £1,500, 
000  for  this  purpose,  it  will  raise  the  sum  to  nearly 
or  quite  half  of  the  expenses  of  the  government !  J  P 

I  shall  risk  nothing  by  saying  that  no  person 
can  carefully  and  candidly  weigh  the  evidence 
that  has  been  accumulated  on  this  subject  by  the 
Reformers  in  England,  without  coming  to  the 
conclusion  that  not  less  than  FIFTY  MILLIONS  OF 
DOLLARS  are  paid  by  the  people  @f  England, 
Ireland  and  Wales  every  year  to  maintain  the 
established  church !  A  church  to  which  more 
than  one  half  of  Great  Britain,  and  probably  nine 
tenths  of  Ireland  are  utterly  opposed  ! 

A  respectable  authority  in  England  a  few  years 
ago,  exhibited  a  table  of  facts  showing  that  the 
administration  of  the  Church  of  England  to  six 
and  a  half  millions  of  hearers,  costs  as  much  as 
the  administration  of  all  other  forms  of  Christianity 
in  all  parts  of  the  civilized  world  to  over  two 
hundred  million  hearers ! 

Again,  I  ask  the  question,  who  need  be  told 
that  this  prodigious  amount  is  paid  by  the  people 
and  not  by  the  aristocracy.  The  poor  man  who 


140  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

raises  ten  bushels  of  wheat,  must  give  one  of  them 
towards  the  revenue  of  a  proud  priest  he  never 
sets  eye  on.  A  tenth  of  the  gross  income  of  the 
people,  goes  into  the  pockets  of  the  clergy. 

Captain  Ross,  a  Tory,  said  this  present  year  in 
Parliament  to  the  evident  uneasiness  of  his  friends, 
that  one  fifth  of  the  rent  of  the  country  went  to 
the  clergy.  For  it  must  be  remembered  that  the 
tithe  is  a  tenth  of  the  gross  income  without  any 
allowance  for  the  expense  of  cultivation.  If  the 
poor  man  has  any  thing  left,  after  being  thus 
fleeced  by  his  shepherd,  and  a  child  dies  he  must 
pay  the  curate  a  burial  fee,  and  last  of  all  a  fee  for 
the  privilege  of  erecting  a  tomb  stone  over  the 
ashes  of  his  dead. 

While  his  earnings  are  thus  taken  from  him, 
how  does  the  prelate  expend  his  income?  In 
building  palaces,  and  rivaling  the  luxury  and 
magnificence  of  princes.  This  is  the  extortion 
of  the  clergy. 


ARISTOCRACY  is  its  twin  sister.  The  Bishops 
are  ex-officio  members  of  the  House  of  Lords — 
bear  titles, — use  worldly  civil  power,  and  mingle 
actively  in  all  the  affairs  of  the  state,  as  peers  of 
the  realm — "  It  is  no  uncommon  spectacle,"  says 
an  English  writer,  "  to  see  the  Lord  Bishops 
hurrying  down  to  the  House  of  Lords  on  what  is 
called,  '  a  field  day,'  to  vote  down  the  liberties  of 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  141 

the  people."  As  aristocrats  of  the  land,  they  are 
every  day  becoming  more  and  more  opulent,  while 
distress  is  overwhelming  all  the  lower,  and  many 
of  the  middle  classes.  One  and  all  they  are  firm 
defenders  of  the  Corn  Laws,  which  are  urging 
the  people  into  famine  and  revolution.  They  are 
allied  in  their  interests  to  the  land  owners,  whose 
wealth  increases  just  in  proportion  as  bread  is 
taxed  into  starvation  prices.  They  resist  any 
proposition  to  make  the  necessaries  of  life  cheap, 
for  the  splendour  of  their  equipage — the  magnifi- 
cence of  their  dwellings,  and  pleasuring  grounds 
depend  upon  keeping  bread  at  a  high  price — for  a 
tenth  of  the  produce  of  the  soil  coming  into  their 
pockets,  and  it  matters  very  much  that  wheat 
shall  be  made  to  sell  for  80s.  a  quarter,  and  not 
40s. — for  the  difference  in  price  will  double  their 
income.  Thus  it  becomes  the  interest  of  twelve 
thousand  clergymen  to  bring  all  their  influence 
to  support  the  aristocracy  of  the  Empire — and  we 
find  the  whole  weight  of  the  established  church 
thrown  into  the  scale  of  oppressive  legislation. 
How  wide  asunder  from  the  benevolence  of  the 
Gospel,  is  the  organization  of  a  church  whose 
interests  are  so  violently  at  war  with  the  good  of 
the  people  !  We  confess  that  in  searching  for  any- 
thing apostolic  in  the  practice  of  the  established 
church,  we  meet  with  poor  success.  Thus  to 
sustain  its  princely  dignity  and  continue  its  ex- 
tortion in  the  midst  of  general  distress,  it  must 
resort  to  OPPRESSION. 


142  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

OPPRESSION. — The  whole  system  of  tithes  and 
church  rates  is  one  of  oppression.  The  London 
Times  of  July  25th,  1831,  says,  "  If  venality  be 
imputed  to  any  class  of  Englishmen,  look  not  to 
the  columns  of  a  newspaper  for  your  proofs — look 
to  the  Red-Book — to  the  Reports  of  Parliament — 
to  the  list  of  pensions  and  sinecures — to  colonial 
functionaries — to  mercenary  lords — to  pamphle- 
teering, jobbing,  mitre  hunting  dignitaries  of  the 
church — to  the  innumerable  tribe  of  vermin  bred 
within  the  folds  of  that  poisonous  mantle  which 
has  wrapped  for  ages  and  gradually  numbed  the 
Herculean  power  of  England."  Two  years  after 
the  same  paper  said,  "  The  church  of  Ireland  is 
finally  one  which  has  for  centuries  in  any  mea- 
sure of  severity,  of  exaction,  of  oppression,  sig- 
nalized itself  by  more  than  concurrence  with  the 
tyrannical  spirit  of  the  civil  government.  It  is 
felt  at  once  to  be  a  weight  upon  the  country  and  a 
degradation." 

The  church  arrogates  to  herself  the  control  of 
the  universities  where  a  son  of  a  Dissenter  is  for- 
bidden to  enter ;  because  he  cannot  subscribe  to  the 
thirty-nine  articles,  he  must  be  shut  out  of  the 
highways  of  learning.  The  church  takes  the 
property  and  the  education  of  the  land  under  her 
own  control.  Not  satisfied  with  this,  she  claims 
the  receptacles  of  the  dead.  A  Dissenting  minis- 
ter is  forbidden  to  perform  the  funeral  rites  over 
his  own  dead  in  the  consecrated  burying  ground. 
The  child  that  has  been  baptized,  educated, 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  143 

brought  to  the  truth  by  a  Dissenting  minister, 
grown  up  under  his  care ;  been  consoled  by  him  in 
sickness,  and  cheered  by  him  in  the  last  fearful 
hour,  must  die  with  the  certainty  that  he  will  be 
interred  by  a  stranger,  if  he  wishes  to  sleep  in  the 
old  burying  ground  where  his  fathers  rest ;  or,  (if 
no  Dissenting  burial  place  is  near,)  be  buried  on 
the  world's  wide  common  by  his  own  minister. 
If  his  friends  will  consent  to  have  the  hours  of 
their  bereavement  embittered  by  the  presence  of 
one  who  insulted  and  wronged  their  dead  while 
living,  and  treats  them  in  their  distress  with  scorn, 
then  indeed  they  can  bury  their  loved  and  lost 
one  in  the  old  church  yard.  But  if,  as  it  often 
happens,  the  clergyman  of  the  parish  is  a  fox- 
hunting, wine-drinking,  godless  man,  and  the  Dis- 
senter under  the  keen  sense  of  oppression  and  in- 
sult, under  the  deeper  consciousness  of  the  man's 
unworthiness  and  heartlessness,  refuses  to  have 
him  minister  at  the  burial  of  his  child,  if  he 
would  have  him  rest  with  the  ashes  of  his  ances- 
tors— "  with  pious  sacrilege,"  a  grave  he  must 
steal.  And  if  the  minister  who  has  prayed  with 
him — bound  up  his  broken  heart,  and  spoken  the 
words  of  truth  and  earnestness  to  him,  perform 
the  services  over  the  stolen  burial,  he  is  compelled 
to  do  it  standing  without  the  paling  of  the  church- 
yard, while  the  suffering  friends  listen  from  with- 
in ! !  And  this  is  the  charity  of  the  church  of 
Christ — these  the  shepherds  of  the  flock,  whose 
office  it  is,  like  their  Great  Master,  "not  to  break 


144  PRESENT    CONDITION    OP 

the  already  bruised  reed  !"  This  is  Christianity  ! 
The  wild  Indian  of  the  wood  has  more  humanity 
— the  savage  of  the  desert  shows  more  sympathy 
for  bereaved  men.  They  will  not  invade  the 
dead ;  even  the  jackals  wait  till  the  living  have 
retired  to  their  dwellings — but  not  so  with  the 
church  of  Christ — it  casts  out  the  dead  before  they 
are  interred,  in  the  very  face  of  the  living — if  they 
never  subscribed  to  the  39  articles  !  !  Dissenters 
are'  obliged  to  sustain  their  own  churches  and 
clergy,  and  pay  just  as  much  to  the  established 
church  as  its  own  members.  Hence  to  obey  both 
his  conscience  and  the  government,  the  Dissenter 
must  first  pay  a  tenth  of  his  entire  income  to  the  es- 
tablishment, besides  being  called  on  frequently  for 
church  rates,  which  are  taxes  levied  for  the  pur- 
pose of  keeping  churches  in  repair,  &c.  to  the  ex- 
tent of  about  $3,000,000  per  annum  \  and  finally, 
he  must  erect  his  own  chapel  and  support  his 
own  minister.  It  is  no  small  compliment  to  the 
Dissenters  to  say,  that  in  addition  to  all  these  ex- 
penses, they  raise  more  to  support  missionaries 
abroad  and  benevolent  enterprises  at  home,  than 
the  churchmen  of  England.  The  author  of  the 
"Natural  History  of  Enthusiasm,"  passes  upon 
them  the  following  just  tribute  of  admiration  : — 
"  The  sums  yearly  raised  by  Dissenters  for  bene- 
volent objects,  reflect  a  lustre  upon  England 
brighter  than  all  the  glory  of  her  arms." 

I  might  here  record  many  instances  of  generosity 
among  Dissenters,  illustrating  this  remark — I  will 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  145 

only  allude  to  one.  I  was  told  by  two  highly  re- 
spectable maiden  ladies,  in  Liverpool,  that  the  va- 
rious sums  they  were  required  to  pay  annually  to 
the  Church  and  the  State,  amounted  to  $123 — no 
inconsiderable  part  of  this  sum  going  into  the 
pockets  of  the  clergyman  of  the  church,  from  whose 
ministrations  they  received  not  the  least  advan- 
tage, since  they  attended  a  Unitarian  chapel,  To 
me  this  seemed  the  more  oppressive,  for  every 
shilling  they  were  thus  taxed  for  the  Church,  left 
them  one  shilling  less  to  pay  to  their  own  minis- 
ter, who  devoted  himself  with  great  fidelity  to  his 
congregation.  These  ladies  had  long  maintained 
themselves  by  keeping  one  of  the  most  genteel 
boarding-houses  in  the  upper  part  of  the  town ; 
and  although  their  means  could  not  be  supposed 
to  be  so  ample  as  to  admit  of  any  large  offerings 
to  the  cause  of  benevolence,  yet  I  had  occasion  to 
know,  that  the  poor  who  came  every  day  to  their 
door  were  not  frowned  empty  away, — and  that  they 
contributed  generously  to  the  support  of  their  own 
minister.  All  this  was  done  with  a  Christian  spirit, 
inspiring  two  sisters,  who  stand  alone  in  the  world, 
to  deny  themselves,  that  they  may  know  the  lux- 
ury of  doing  good  to  others.  I  was  sitting  with 
them  one  morning,  as  a  friend  entered  to  solicit 
charity  for  a  family  in  distress ;  what  they  had 
was  freely  given.  After  the  person  was  gone,  they 
spoke  of  the  trials  to  their  feelings  they  often  ex- 
perienced, of  not  being  able  to  select  for  themselves 
VOL.  i.  13 


146  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

the  objects  of  their  benevolence,  rather  than  have 
those  objects  dictated  by  ecclesiastical  law. 

It  often  happens  that  Dissenters  refuse  to  pay 
the  taxes  levied  on  them  to  support  the  Church, 
since  they  regard  it  as  helping  to  uphold  a  worldly 
and  corrupt  institution.  They  then  suffer  dis- 
traint on  property.  Anything  on  which  the  offi- 
cer can  lay  his  hands,  be  it  the  last  means  of  sub- 
sistence, the  last  comfort  procured  for  a  sick  family, 
is  taken.  The  distress  thus  caused  is  often  very 
great,  and  such  scenes  are  witnessed  every  day. 

Last  year  a  man  by  the  name  of  John  Cockin, 
suffered  distraint  on  his  property  for  refusing  to 
pay  Is.  Wd.  for  Easter  offerings,  in  addition  to  his 
tithes.  He  declared  this  was  a  tax  never  imposed 
on  him  before,  and  he  would  not  pay  it.  The 
warrant  for  attaching  his  goods,  process  and  all, 
swelled  the  amount  to  Us.  lOrf.  which  the  magis- 
trates took  in  dried  bacon.  This  was  done  by 
the  agent  of  the  Vicar  of  Almondbury,  Rev.  Lewis 
Jones. 

The  claims  of  the  Church  are  never  outlawed, 
although  not  enforced  for  years  before.  Unless 
they  can  be  shown  to  have  been  abolished  before 
the  year  1180,  they  can  be  enforced  with  the  cer- 
tainty of  being  collected.  Thus  any  titheable  pro- 
perty, that  has  been  suffered  to  go  exempt  for  a 
long  period,  can  be  subjected  to  the  tax  when  the 
clergyman  pleases.  These  clergymen  cannot  even 
pay  for  the  washing  of  their  own  surplices — even 
the  poor  Dissenting  minister  himself,  is  equally 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  147 

subjected  to  all  these  taxes  with  his  own  people. 
Colton  tells  a  story  of  a  rector,  who  one  morning 
made,  what  he  professed  to  be  a.  friendly  call,  upon 
a  Dissenting  clergyman,  who  happened  to  reside 
in  his  own  parish.  The  Dissenter  was  pleased  to 
receive  the  call,  since  he  hoped  from  the  bland  ad- 
dress of  the  rector,  that  he  designed  to  open 
friendly  intercourse  with  him,  which  had  never 
before  been  extended,  although  he  had  lived  for 
years  in  his  immediate  neighbourhood.  The  Dis- 
senter showed  him  his  grounds,  and  took  great 
pleasure  in  displaying  his  little  premises,  and  giv- 
ing him  a  history  of  his  improvements.  "  There 
is  about  half  an  acre  here  as  you  see,"  said  the 
dissenting  minister  :  "  Half  of  it  is  ornamented, 
where  I  take  pleasure  with  my  thirteen  children, 
and  the  other  half  furnishes  vegetables  to  feed  them. 
You  would  hardly  believe  it,  but  this  little  patch, 
under  the  culture  of  my  own  hand,  goes  a  great 
way  towards  supplying  the  table  of  my  numerous 
family."  "Indeed,  sir.  And  how  many  years 
has  it  been  so  productive  ?"  "  Some  half  a  dozen 
or  more."  The  vicar  confessed  himself  greatly 
pleased,  and  having  ascertained  all  he  came  there 
to  know,  withdrew,  wishing  his  dissenting  brother 
a  "good  morning." 

Now  for  the  result !  Immediately  after,  the 
rector's  steward  sent  to  the  Dissenter's  Study,  a 
bill  for  tithes  on  the  little  garden  of  £6,  or  nearly 
$30  per  year,  for  six  years  previous,  and  the  same 
for  the  then  current  year,  amounting  in  all  to  two 


148  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

hundred  dollars.  The  rector  was  a  single  man, 
and  had  a  large  salary.  The  dissenting  clergy- 
man had  a  family  of  thirteen  children,  and  a  small 
congregation,  who  could  afford  him  with  the 
greatest  economy  but  a  slender  support.  But 
such  is  the  tyranny  of  the  English  Church,  there 
was  no  relief  for  the  outraged  man.  To  pay  this 
large  bill,  was  swept  away  every  comfort  he  had 
gathered  around  him,  and  reduced  his  cheerful 
family  to  want  and  sorrow !  And  yet  this  is 
"  Apostolical !" 

Upon  the  poor  dissenter,  or  the  poor  churchman, 
this  system  operates  with  great  severity.  There 
are  a  vast  number  of  instances  where  a  poor  man, 
whose  whole  tithes  do  not  amount  to  more  than 
one  or  two  shillings  per  acre,  and  yet  subject  him 
to  have  his  cow,  sheep  &c.,  driven  to  pound  six 
times  a  year  for  tithes — liable  each  time  to  a 
charge  of  2s.  6d.  driver's  fees,  besides  expense  of 
impounding ! 

I  said  that  titheable  property  must  often  pay 
church  taxes,  according  to  the  ipse  dixit  of  the 
clergyman,  however  unjust  it  may  be. — Says 
Raumer :  In  many  parts  of  England,  a  lamb  had 
from  time  immemorial,  been  reckoned  at  Wd.  but 
a  clergyman  lately  demanded  it  should  be  reck- 
oned at  £1,  17s.  §d.  or  between  $8  and  $9.  By 
this  oppressive  act  alone,  his  income  was  increased 
£200  a  year  !  A  farmer  wished  to  take  a  cow  and 
calf  to  market — the  tithe  receiver  forbade  it,  till 
the  calf  was  old  enough  to  be  taxed,  and  could 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  149 

live  without  its  mother.  Another  refused  to 
receive  a  tenth  of  the  milk  daily  which  the  farmer 
might  more  easily  spare,  and  demanded  all  the 
milk  from  all  the  cows  every  tenth  day.  In 
another  case  the  individual  was  compelled  to 
keep  the  strictest  account  of  the  eggs — how  many 
were  laid — how  many  were  stolen  by  animals, 
and  the  number  put  to  hatch.  A  tithe  of  five 
cabbages  and  three  heads  of  cellery,  was  the  cause 
on  one  occasion  of  an  expensive  law  suit. 

Not  long  since,  there  was  a  sale  of  the  private 
library  of  a  Baptist  clergyman  of  Waterloo  Chapel, 
Waterloo  Road,  which  had  been  taken  on  a  war- 
rant of  distress  for  the  non  payment  of  16s.  6d.  for 
two  church  rates.  Mr.  Francis,  the  Dissenter, 
refused  to  pay  the  rates  from  principle ;  believing 
it  both  unjust  and  unscriptural,  he  preferred  to 
suffer  loss  of  property  rather  than  sanction  the 
law  by  his  obedience. 

The  first  lot,  contained  a  copy  of  Henry's  Bible, 
3  vols.  Baptist  Magazine  13  vols.  and  Ridgeway's 
Body  of  Divinity,  2  vols.  As  the  "  Bible"  "  went 
up" — " the  church  rates" — "  the  church  rates" re- 
sounded through  the  room.  At  times  it  was 
almost  impossible  to  proceed  with  the  sale.  Only 
one  person  was  found  to  bid,  and  he  was  employed 
to  do  it.  Yet  even  he  was  forced  to  make  this 
confession,  from  the  scorn  that  was  heaped  on  him 
by  the  indignant  spectators.  After  the  sale  was 
over,  it  was  proposed  to  give  three  groans  for 

13* 


150  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

church  rates — but  this  was  prevented  by  the 
friends  of  Mr.  Francis. 

But  this  is  not  all.  The  oppression  of  the 
church  does  not  stop  with  warrants  of  distress,  and 
legalized  robbery  of  the  poor.  Not  satisfied  with 
taking  what  belongs  to  the  dissenter,  it  often  takes 
the  dissenter  himself  when  he  refuses  to  pay  the 
unjust,  extortionate  tax,  she  imposes  on  him. 

John  Thorogood's  is  not  an  isolated  case.  A 
man  by  the  name  of  Barnes,  was  imprisoned  eight 
months,  for  persisting  in  this  refusal :  and  his 
imprisonment  was  attended  with  all  the  indignity 
an  incensed  church  dared  heap  upon  an  innocent 
man  ;  The  Morning  Advertiser  of  Dec.  31,  1840, 
says  "  the  ink  had  scarcely  time  to  dry  which 
signed  the  warrant  for  Mr.  Barnes'  incarceration 
in  Leicester  Jail,  when  the  Rev.  Dr.  Lyle  procured 
the  commitment  of  a  poor  widow  of  the  name  of 
Young,  to  Monmouth  Prison,  for  an  arrear  of 
tithes  of  £3,105.  What  matters  it  to  a  tyrannical 
establishment,  whether  the  victim  be  a  man  or  a 
woman.  The  church  is  as  devoid  of  gallantry  as 
of  generosity.  Mercy  even  to  a  woman  is  regarded 
as  a  weakness.  All  respect  for  a  woman  is  given 
up,  if  she  have  the  misfortune  to  fall  into  the 
church's  debt,  Nor  will  it  mend  the  matter,  even 
though  the  unhappy  oifender  should,  as  in  this 
case,  happen  to  be  a  widow.  Even  for  widows, 
clerical  cormorants  have  no  bowels  of  compas- 
sion !"  Bad  as  were  the  cases  of  Thorogood  and 
Barnes,  they  were  mildness  and  mercy  compared 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  151 

with  that  of  the  widow,  the  victim  of  Dr.  Lyle's 
cupidity.  They  refused  from  conscientious  scru- 
ples, to  meet  the  exactions  of  the  church.  They 
urged  not  the  plea  of  poverty  or  inability  for  their 
non-payment.  Sarah  Young  did  not  pay  simply 
because  she  could  not.  So  far  from  incurring  the 
charge  of  contumacy,  she  distinctly  intimated  her 
willingness  to  pay,  provided  she  had  the  means, 
and  only  pleaded  for  a  little  time.  Her  language 
was  "  have  patience  with  me  and  I  will  pay  thee 
all." 

"  That  mercy  I  to  others  show, 
"  That  mercy  show  to  me — " 

is  a  prayer  which  Dr.  Lyle  would  not  probably 
incur  the  danger  of  making  ! 

It  must  be  remarked  also,  that  the  courts 
from  which  are  issued  these  warrants  of  distress 
and  imprisonment  are  ecclesiastical  tribunals. 
The  clergyman  is  a  civil  officer,  as  well  as  a 
servant  of  God,  and  many  an  injured  man  can 
bear  witness  that  "  he  beareth  not  the  sword  in 
vain." 

How  does  it  look  for  a  "  successor  of  the  Apos- 
tles" to  issue  a  warrant  for  the  imprisonment  of  a 
poor  man  on  Saturday  night,  and  on  Sunday  en- 
ter the  temple  of  God  as  the  only  legitimate  am- 
bassador of  Heaven,  and  preach  with  the  "woe" 
denounced  by  the  Almighty  against  those  "  who 
oppress  the  poor"  impending  over  his  head.  On 
Saturday  night  sending  the  man  to  jail  for  refus- 


152  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

ing  to  pay  him  what  he  will  squander  in  luxuries 
and  on  the  Sabbath,  pretending  to  lift  up  his  voice 
against  covetousness  and  hard-heartedness,  in  the 
name  of  the  Saviour  who  preached  the  Gospel  to 
the  poor  without  money  and  without  price  ! 

In  the  language  of  another,  "  These  ministers 
of  the  meek  Christ  speak  like  lambs  and  devour 
like  dragons,  anoint  their  lips  with  the  oil  of  cha- 
rity and  defile  their  hands  with  blood."  No  won- 
der an  Englishman  has  said,  "  Every  distraint 
had  for  Church  rates,  and  every  public  sale  for 
the  like  purpose,  is-  a  nail  in  the  coffin  of  the 
Church  Establishment." 

In  Ireland  this  oppression  is  not  borne  with  so 
much  moderation.  England  has  been  obliged  to 
keep  a  large  standing  army  there  to  execute  her 
injustice.  Lord  John  Russell  declared  that  with- 
out this  army,  not  a  penny  would  be  collected 
from  a  single  Catholic  in  Ireland  for  the  support 
of  the  Church. 

The  Irish  blood'  is  often  too  hot  to  submit 
tamely  to  these  violations  of  home  and  property ; 
this  enormous  tax  to  support  what  they  most  bit- 
terly hate.  Who  that  ever  read  it,  has  forgotten 
the  slaughter  of  Rathcormac?  Having  procured 
a  military  force  from  the  government,  Archdeacon 
Ryder  headed  the  troops  himself,  and  led  them 
down  to  the  cottage  of  widow  Ryan  to  force  the 
collection  of  £5  tithes,  which  she  had  not  paid 
because  she  could  not.  It  was  regarded  by  the 
populace  as  a  barbarous  cruelty  upon  a  poor  wi- 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  153 

dow,  and  they  pressed  him  to  desist.  "  He  gave 
orders  first  to  draw  swords,  next  to  load,  and  at 
last  tojire.  He  was  obeyed.  Nine  persons  were 
killed,  and  as  many  wounded." 

There  were  2900  catholics  in  the  parish  and 
only  29  protestants,  and  half  of  these  were  mem- 
bers of  the  Archdeacon's  family.  The  tithes  of 
the  parish  were  between  $7000  and  $8000  a  year. 
The  "  Minister  of  the  Cross"  shot  down  more  per- 
sons than  his  whole  congregation  amounted  to, 
exclusive  of  his  own  family  !  The  heart-sicken- 
ing details  of  the  widow  searching  among  the 
dead  bodies  for  her  son,  her  finding  him  with  his 
mouth  open,  and  his  eyes  set  in  the  fixedness  of 
death,  the  closing  of  his  eyes,  and  the  arranging 
of  the  body  in  the  decency  of  death,  amid  the 
blood  were  he  lay,  are  all  too  terrible  to  be  mi- 
nutely described  !  Another  widow  had  two  sons 
killed  in  this  ecclesiastical  slaughter.  "  When 
their  lifeless,  but  still  bleeding  bodies  were 
brought  into  her  house,  she  threw  herself  on 
them,  and  exclaimed  in  Irish,  '  They  are  not 
dead,  for  they  are  giving  their  blood.' "  And 
when  the  terrible  truth  forced  itself  on  her  that 
her  noble  boys  were  no  more,  she  went  mad  ! 

This  bloody  massacre  was  to  get  £5  worth  of 
corn  due  to  the  Archdeacon  for  tithes.  Stanzas 
have  been  composed  to  commemmorate  the  bloody 
scene,  which  shall  yet  be  sung  at  the  funeral  of 
the  Church  Establishment  in  Ireland.  The  last 
verse  runs  thus, — 


154  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

"  The  widow  knelt,  and  she  muttered  low, 
"  '  On  the  men  of  Rathcormac  wo  I  wo !  wo !' 
"  The  curse  of  the  widow  who  shall  bear  : — 
"  God  of  the  childless  hear  her  prayer  !" 

He  will  hear  it,  or  the  Bible  is  a  fable,  and  Hea- 
ven a  lie.  That  song  will  be  incorporated  in  the 
barbaric  literature  of  the  lower  classes  of  Ireland. 
That  fearful  tragedy  shall  be  handed  down  from 
generation  to  generation,  making  each  Irishman  a 
sworn  Hannibal  to  the  English  Church  until  it  is 
overthrown.  It  shall  yet  ring  in  their  wild  battle 
cry  as  they  pour  on  their  foes.  That  murder 
scene  shall  be  emblazoned  on  their  banners,  and 
nerve  many  a  heart  to  deeds  of  wilder  strength, 
long  after  the  descendants  of  him  who  committed 
it  shall  have  crumbled  to  dust.  Cowered  by  the 
tremendous  physical  force  that  continually  frowns 
on  them,  they  remain  silent.  Yet  each  of  these 
deeds  of  oppression  and  murder  are  treasured  up 
in  their  hearts,  handed  down  from  father  to  son, 
and  wait  the  day  of  vengeance !  Whether  Ire- 
land shall  ever  be  free  or  not,  we  cannot  tell,  but 
that  she  will  have  a  bloody  reckoning  with  Eng- 
land unless  her  oppressive  hand  is  removed,  we 
cannot  doubt. 


WORLDLINESS  OF  THE  CLERGY. One  half  of 

the  livings  of  the  Church  are  in  the  gift  of  the  aris- 
tocracy, and  most  of  the  rest  are  within  the  reach 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  155 

of  their  influence.  This  influence  is  all  wielded 
to  sustain  the  wealth,  magnificence,  and  power  of 
the  Church  ;  and  to  concentrate  them  in  the  hands 
of  the  aristocracy.  The  livings  are  held  like  other 
property,  and  bestowed  according  to  the  owner's 
pleasure.  In  this  way  it  is  no  uncommon  thing 
to  see  several  livings  given  to  one  clergyman — 
who  either  sells  them  out  to  the  highest  bidder,  or 
hires  poor  curates  to  do  the  work  for  a  small  salary, 
and  pockets  the  avails  of  the  livings  himself. 
Enormous  revenues  thus  flow  into  the  hands  of 
influential  families,  which  place  humble  indivi- 
duals on  a  footing  with  princes,  when  they  are 
once  elevated  to  the  mitre.  Says  Colton,  "  The 
Beresford  family,  in  all  its  branches,  at  the  head 
of  which  is  the  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  in  Ireland, 
is  said  to  realize  annually  from  the  Church,  Army, 
and  Navy,  by  patronage,  principally  from  the 
Church,  £100,000  or  $480,000.  Warburton, 
Bishop  of  Cloyne,  a  poor  man  at  the  beginning, 
left  from  his  acquisitions  out  of  his  diocese, 
£120,000  or  $575,000  to  his  children.  It  was 
stated  by  Sir  John  Newport,  in  Parliament,  that 
three  Irish  Bishops,  within  fifteen  years,  had  left 
to  their  families  £700,000  or  $3,360,000,  average 
to  each,  $1,120,000.  A  former  Bishop  of  Cloyne, 
as  I  have  seen  stated,  went  to  Ireland  without  a 
shilling,  and  after  eight  years  died  worth  more 
than  £300,000  or  $1,440,000.  The  late  Earl  of 
Bristol,  Bishop  of  Derby,  resided  twenty  years 
abroad,  without  being  nice  in  the  choice  of  his  com- 


156  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

pany,  and  received  in  the  meantime  from  his  dio- 
cese revenues  to  the  amount  of  £240,000  or 
$1,152,000.  More  than  one-third  of  the  incum- 
bents of  the  Irish  Protestant  Church  are  non-resi- 
dents ;  some  of  whom,  with  incomes  from  £5,000 
to  £10,000,  abstracted  from  the  parishes,  are  living 
on  the  continent  with  their  families.  The  Arch- 
bishop of  Cashel  has  livings  in  his  gift  worth 
£35,000  or  $168,000  annually  ;  those  in  the  gift 
of  the  Bishop  of  Cloyne  are  quoted  at  £50,000  or 
$240,000  as  their  annual  value;  ditto,  of  the 
Bishop  of  Cork,  at  £30,000  or  $144,000  ;  ditto,  of 
the  Bishop  of  Ferns,  a  similar  amount. 

Some  reader  may  not  understand  what  is  meant 
by  pluralities.  Suppose  a  Bishop  lived  in  New- 
York  in  one  of  the  elegant  mansions  in  the  upper 
part  of  the  town,  with  his  liveried  servants,  out- 
riders, &c.  on  an  annual  income  of  $250,000. 
Being  entitled  to  one-tenth  of  the  income  of  six  of 
the  richest  towns  in  Genesee  county,  this  large 
revenue  would  easily  accrue  to  him.  This  is  what 
is  meant  by  the  term  pluralities — the  income  of 
several  parishes  going  to  one  person,  through  the 
constitution  of  the  church  and  the  favor  of  politi- 
cal friends.  But  do  you  ask  why  the  income  of 
one-tenth  of  the  annual  revenue  of  six  towns,  or 
it  may  be  fifty,  is  given  to  one  man  who  lives 
three  hundred  miles  distant,  and  who  preaches  but 
one  sermon  a  year  to  the  people  from  whose 
pockets  this  revenue  comes?  This  is  just  the 
question  the  English  people  are  now  asking.  It 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  157 

is  almost  incredible,  that  such  a  system  of  extor- 
tion by  a  church,  should  be  tolerated  in  an  enlight- 
ened nation.  Yet  in  England  and  Ireland  there  are 
several  thousand  clergymen  who  receive  the  reve- 
nues of  parishes  where  they  do  not  reside,  and  in 
which  they  perform  no  labour.  And  multitudes  of 
the  dignitaries  of  the  church,  and  powerful  members 
of  the  aristocracy,  hold  these  livings  in  every  part 
of  the  empire,  and  transfer  them  to  their  sons  and 
near  connexions.  But  to  resume  the  figure — if  this 
Bishop  in  New- York  should  transfer  the  annual 
income  of  one  of  these  Genesee  towns,  amounting 
to  $15,000,  to  his  son  or  son-in-law,  who  never  re- 
sided in  the  parish,  but  sported  away  his  time  in 
Washington,  this  transfer  would  be  called  the  gift 
of  a  living,  and  that  son  or  son-in-law  a  non-resi- 
dent, because  he  would  take  annually  the  rich 
fleece  of  the  flock  presented  him  by  the  "  succes- 
sor of  the  Apostles,"  without  residing  in  his  parish 
or  bestowing  upon  it  a  single  thought,  except  when 
the  tithes  came  due.  His  office  would  be  that  of 
a  sinecure,  because  it  would  be  literally  without 
care. 

One  would  suppose  this  would  not  often  oc- 
cur, as  it  is  such  a  gross  violation  of  justice  and 
religion.  Yet  it  is  so  common,  that  not  one  half 
of  all  the  clergymen  of  the  church  are  found  in 
those  places  any  considerable  part  of  the  year  per- 
forming the  duties  of  their  office.  In  Hansan's 

O 

Debates,  (1103)  quoted  by  Raumer,  we  find  it 
stated,  that  there  are  only  4,416  clergymen  who 
VOL.  i.  14 


158  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

live  where  their  duty  demands,  while  6,080  are 
out  of  their  places  !  The  number  is  stated  to  be 
still  larger  by  some  other  authorities. 

But  as  if  to  make  an  experiment  on  the  credu- 
lity and  forbearance  of  man,  not  satisfied  with 
such  outrages  on  religion  and  humanity,  these 
livings  are  often  sold  at  auction  to  the  highest 
bidder,  like  slaves  in  the  shambles,  only  it  seems 
more  like  sacrilege  to  speculate  upon  an  ambas- 
sadorship from  Heaven.  These  parishes  are  of 
course  sold  to  the  highest  bidder  without  regard 
to  his  character  or  the  use  he  will  make  of  his 
power.  They  may  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
rankest  infidel  or  the  vilest  debauchee  ;  but  this  is 
a  question  the  church  cares  little  about. 

These  auctions  are  advertised  in  London  Jour- 
nals, in  the  same  columns  with  stocks.  The 
London  Morning  Herald,  April  15,  1830,  contain- 
ed the  following : 

"  To  be  sold  the  next  presentation  to  a  vicarage, 
in  one  of  the  midland  counties,  and  in  the  imme- 
diate neighbourhood  of  one  or  two  of  the  first 
packs  of  fox  hounds  in  the  kingdom.  The  pre- 
sent annual  income  about  £580  ;  subject  to  Cu- 
rate's salary.  The  incumbent  in  his  60th  year." 

In  other  words,  if  there  is  a  gentleman  in  the 
united  kingdom  who  has  money,  and  a  son  who 
has  neither  brains  nor  character  enough  for  any 
thing  else,  let  the  good  father  come  on  and  attend 
the  sale.  A  curate  can  be  obtained  for  £30.  a 
year,  to  preach  to  the  congregation,  which  could 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  159 

assemble  in  a  vestry  and  leave  room  for  a  few 
Dissenters,  and  then  "  one  or  two  of  the  first  packs 
of  fox  hounds  in  the  kingdom  !"  Delightful  in- 
deed !  The  living  is  purchased,  all  hands  pray 
most  earnestly  for  the  death  of  the  present  incum- 
bent ;  "  and  in  due  time  the  joyful  news  comes, 
that  he  has  gone  off  in  a  fit  of  apoplexy,  or  broken 
his  neck  in  a  steeple  chase.  After  the  season  is 
over  in  London,  the  family  go  down  to  the  vicar- 
age, the  son  procures  a  sermon  from  his  pale  cu- 
rate, (who,  as  in  duty  bound,  says  nothing  about 
it,)  preaches  just  14  minutes  and  45  seconds — 
after  which  the  circle  of  friends  assemble  at  the 
parsonage  to  dine.  The  sermon  is  pronounced 
capital — the  wine  finer  still.  In  due  time,  under 
the  inspiring  influence  of  the  Falternian,  the  old 
man  becomes  prouder  of  his  son  than  he  ever 
supposed  he  would  be,  and  my  Lord  Patronage, 
who  is  present,  becomes  benevolent  withal,  and 
they  really  think  the  new  incumbent  is  so  clever, 
(i.  e.  gets  such  glorious  dinners  and  has  such  re- 
spectable connexions)  that  he  must  not  be  over- 
looked, and  my  Lord  Patronage  agrees  to  mention 
his  case  to  My  Lord  the  apostolical- wire-puller, 
and  together  it  shall  all  be  arranged — the  path 
to  ecclesiastical  preferment  is  opened,  and  on  the 
swimming,  half-glazed  eye  of  the  young  divine, 
the  image  of  a  mitre  glitters  in  the  distance.  The 
chase  is  settled  for  the  following  day,  and  next 
morning,  "  Tally  ho  !"  rings  over  the  parish,  and 
away  go  the  hounds  ! 


160  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

"  This  is  no  caricature,  it  is  a  living  reality,"  said 
Lord  Mountcashel  in  the  House  of  Lords,  "  I 
know  an  archdeacon  in-  Ireland  who  keeps  one  of 
the  best  packs  of  fox  hounds  in  the  country,  ano- 
ther clergyman  not  seven  miles  distant  from  the 
former,  has  also  a  pack  of  hounds  with  which  he 
regularly  hunts  ;  and  I  know  another,  who  after 
his  duties  in  the  church  are  performed,  meets  his 
brother-huntsmen  at  the  communion  table  on 
Sunday,  to  arrange  with  them  where  the  hounds 
are  to  start  from  the  next  day." 

Any  one  who  will  read  the  London  Journals, 
particularly  the  Court  Journal,  will  see  the  names 
of  scores  of  church  dignitaries,  who  figure  largely 
at  the  races,  dramatic  fetes,  theatres,  balls,  masque- 
rades, &c. 

The  North  Devonshire  Journal  of  last  year, 
Nov.  11,  contained  the  following  notice  : — 
"  Clerical  Dinner  Party:'' 

"  The  sporting  friends  of  the  Reverend  John 
Russel  gave  him  a  dinner  on  Friday  Last,  at  the 
Golden  Lion,  in  this  town,  Barnstable,  en  which 
occasion,  they  presented  him  with  a  picture  by 
Mr.  Lowden,  of  Bath,  representing  the  Rev.  gen- 
tleman, mounted  on  his  favourite  hunter,  sur- 
rounded with  his  dogs.  The  likenesses  are  said 
to  be  faithful,  particularly  of  his  horse,  and  the 
execution  as  highly  creditable  to  the  rising  artist. 
The  picture  was  presented  to  Mr.  Russel  by  his 
friends,  as  a  tribute  to  his  unwearied  exertions  in 
support  of  the  sports  of  the  field." 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  161 

This  is  a  fair  specimen  of  not  a  few  of  the 
"successors  of  the  apostles,"  in  the  established 
church.  What  kind  of  an  appearance  would 
Paul  make  '-mounted  on  his  favourite  hunter, 
surrounded  by  his  dogs."  "  The  unwearied  ex- 
ertions of  "  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke  and  John,"  in 
supporting  the  "  sports  of  the  field."  Why  has 
not  some  "  rising  artist"  thought  of  composing  a 
picture  of  the  apostles  retiring  from  the  Lord's 
table  to  the  vestry,  to  arrange  where  the  hounds 
are  to  start  from  the  next  day?  Clerical  fox 
hunters  should  patronize  such  designs ;  they  would 
help  the  common  mind,  which  is  so  obtuse,  to 
discovering  the  resemblance  between  the  estab- 
lished clergy  and  the  apostles.  But  seriously,  if 
Paul  had  attended  one  of  these  auctions  of  liv- 
ings, or  clerical  dinners  ?  would  he  not  most 
likely,  in  his  bold,  straight  forward  way,  have  had 
a  word  to  say,  and  judging  from  his  speech,  would 
he  not  most  likely  have  been  taken  for  a  Dissen- 
ter ?  When  Diodorus  Siculus  bought  the  Roman 
Empire  at  auction,  wise  men  augured  its  speedy 
downfall.  It  was  not  long  after  the  Jewish  tem- 
ple was  desecrated  by  money  changers,  that  that 
gorgeous  structure  smoked  with  the  ground.  It 
may  be  so  with  the  church  of  England. 

It  may  be  said  I  select  isolated  facts  to  illustrate 
the  general  condition  of  the  church,  and  therefore 
afford  a  distorted  view  of  it.  I  do  not  suppose 
the  clergy  to  be  all  depraved,  worldly  men.  Nor 
do  I  suppose  things  are  in  quite  as  bad  a  state  as 
14* 


162  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

they  were  when  the  good  John  Newton  said,  there 
were  not  three  hundred  among  the  ten  thousand 
clergy  of  the  establishment  who  preached  the 
Gospel  of  Christ.  But  I  am  quite  willing  to  risk 
the  assertion,  that  at  the  present  time  not  one  half 
of  them  either  preach  evangelical  doctrines,  or 
profess  to  be  serious  Christians  !  I  should  not  be 
thought  extravagant  by  the  best  judges,  perhaps, 
should  I  make  the  number  very  much  greater. 
The  church  of  England  has  given  to  the  world 
some  of  the  greatest  and  best  of  men.  Ever  since 
the  fires  of  Oxford  and  Smithfield  were  put  out, 
there  have  been  learned  and  holy  men  nurtured 
in  the  bosom  of  the  English  church.  What  age 
or  nation  beside,  can  open  a  scroll  where  you  find 
such  names  as  Butler,  Brown,  Stillingfleet,  Tillot- 
son,  Boyle,  Law,  Leighton,  Barrow,  and  Jeremy 
Taylor — and  in  later  times  what  names  are  more 
honoured  than  those  of  Newton,  Scott,  Cecil, 
Legh  Richmond,  Buchanan,  Henry  Martyn  and 
Simeon  ?  Are  there  better  men  than  Baptist 
Noel,  M'Neil,  Melville  and  Bickersteth  ?  I  have 
met  with  some  of  these  last  mentioned,  and  heard 
them  preach,  and  I  do  not  know  that  I  ever  listen- 
ed to  any  preachers  with  more  pleasure.  I  only 
wonder  that  these  men  who  acknowledge  and  la- 
ment the  evils  I  have  spoken  of,  should  be  so 
deeply  wedded  to  the  establishment ;  since  these 
evils  have  always  existe'd  in  the  church,  and  spring 
legitimately  from  it  in  its  alliance  with  the  state. 
On  several  occasions  I  heard  Baptist  Noel,  and 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  163 

of  the  two  thousand  in  his  congregation,  I  did  not 
see  one  who  did  not  seem  deeply  impressed  with 
the  truth.  The  congregation  was  made  up  chiefly 
(in  his  Chapel  of  Ease)  from  the  humbler  walks 
of  life.  The  preaching  was  just  what  it  should 
be.  The  most  sublime  truths  of  Christianity  il- 
lustrated in  pure  and  simple  language,  the  most 
tender  and  affectionate  appeals  were  made  to  the 
conscience,  and  the  highest  motives  to  holiness 
urged.  The  speaker  convinced  me  that  he  had  a 
message  from  God,  and  felt  it  in  his  own  soul. 
When  the  assembly  broke  up,  you  could  discover 
that  many  heads  which  had  been  bowed  for  an 
hour  were  bent  in  tears — they  went  forth  silently 
— each  had  listened  for  himself — not  a  word  could 
be  heard  in  the  porch  as  the  assembly  separated. 
This,  I  exclaimed,  is  Christianity,  pure  and  unde- 
filed.  One  loves  to  witness  such  scenes.  I  care 
not  whether  I  worship  in  a  spacious  and  magnifi- 
cent temple,  with  the  pomp  of  a  cathedral  ser- 
vice, or  in  the  log  school-house^  in  a  clearing  of 
the  Missouri  forest,  so  that  I  but  hear  a  message 
of  love  and  truth  from  my  Father  in  Heaven  de- 
livered by  a  man,  whose  earnestness,  fervor,  and 
simplicity  tell  me  he  feels  the  truth  himself. 
One  scene  I  may,  perhaps,  briefly  allude  to,  which 
will  not  soon  fade  from  my  memory.  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  attending  a  Sabbath  School  Jubilee  at 
the  house  of  Mr.  Noel,  near  old  Epping  forest.  A 
thousand  Sunday-school  children  from  London 
met  there,  according  to  his  custom  of  gathering 


164  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

once  a  year,  all  the  scholars  and  teachers  connect- 
ed with  his  church  and  chapel,  to  his  house  for 
an  entertainment.  There  was  a  book,  fruits,  and 
a  bouquet  of  flowers  for  every  child.  It  was  a  beau- 
tiful sight.  A  thousand  children  could  be  seen 

o 

playing  on  the  green  lawn  at  the  back  of  the 
house,  nearly  all  dressed  in  white,  and  all  wild 
with  the  excitement  of  pure  country  air,  and  rural 
sports.  I  passed  an  hour  or  two  with  Mr.  Noel, 
walking  over  his  grounds.  He  spoke  freely  of  the 
Church,  its  abuses,  corruptions,  pride,  and  world- 
liness.  I  expressed  great  surprize  that  one  who 
knew  and  felt  all  this,  should  consider  it  his  duty 
to  remain  in  the  position  he  occupied.  He  wished 
me  to  make  a  proper  distinction  between  the 
Church  of  Christ  and  its  corruptions,  for  it  was  the 
real  Zion,  although  its  garments  were  soiled  with 
the  filth  of  the  world.  I  inquired  the  feelings  that 
existed  between  Churchmen  and  Dissenters.  He 
replied,  "  Holy  men,  I  find,  are  everywhere  more 
attached  to  the  spirit  than  the  forms  of  religion, 
and  there  are  many  in  communion  with  the 
Church,  and  more,  perhaps,  who  dissent  from  it, 
who  have  heartily  united  in  several  noble,  benev- 
olent objects,  willing  to  acknowledge  each  other 
brethren  of  one  common  Lord.  We  feel  that  we 
cannot  in  any  manner  so  effectually  break  down 
the  walls  that  have  so  long  separated  the  sympa- 
thies and  hearts  of  Churchmen  and  Dissenters  as 
by  associating  ourselves  together  in  spreading  the 
Saviour's  truth.  It  softens  the  feelings  and  binds 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  165 

the  hearts  of  God's  people  together,  to  go  forth 
hand  in  hand  to  win  a  triumph  for  holiness  and 
philanthropy  in  the  earth.  Oh  !  if  Christendom 
could  have  turned  her  arms  against  the  empire  of 
darkness,  and  not  have  buried  them  in  her  own 
bowels,  the  world  would  long  ago  have  been  made 
bright  as  heaven.  I  am  persuaded  that  sectarian 
jealousies  have  done  more  to  obstruct  the  progress 
of  Christianity  than  almost  all  other  causes,  and 
the  Christian  Church  in  all  its  branches  must 
give  up  its  bigotry,  before  she  can  expect  the 
world  to  embrace  the  doctrines  and  spirit  of  the 
Saviour."  Here,  too,  I  met  him  who  was  for 
many  years  the  curate  of  Legh  Richmond.  He 
related  to  me  many  interesting  circumstances  in 
the  history  of  that  illustrious  man. 

These  are  the  bright  spots  in  the  picture.  In 
the  establishment  there  are  but  few  men  like 
Baptist  Noel.  By  the  greater  part  of  the  clergy, 
such  men  are  avoided — and  all  we  can  say  is  that 
they  are  exceptions  to  the  general  rule — the  con- 
stitution and  practice  of  the  State  Religion  has  no 
tendency  to  produce  them. 

I  have  dwelt  upon  this  point  to  show  the  reader 
that  I  am  not  insensible  to  the  good  things  that 
do  exist  in  the  general  mass  of  corruption.  But 
I  have  unfolded  the  character  of  the  church,  first 
to  show  what  the  establishment  tolerates,  second, 
The  abuses  to  which  it  is  subject,  and  Third,  that 
the  rule  among  the  clergy  is  worldliness,  and 
holiness  of  life  the  exception. 


166  PRESENT     CONDITION    OP 

A  part  of  her  clergy,  disbelieving  her  creed  but 
understanding  her  worldly  policy,  get  rich  by  her 
spoils  and  perform  her  sacred  functions  as  a  means 
of  obtaining  them.  A  part  make  an  open  avowal 
of  having  no  experimental  religion.  The  younger 
sons  of  the  nobility  find  the  church  with  the 
patronage  of  their  fathers  the  easiest  path  to  wealth 
and  a  life  of  leisure.  Another,  and  a  very  large 
and  rapidly  increasing  class,  deeply  imbued  with 
the  reverence  for  forms  and  symbols,  are  retiring 
again  to  the  doctrines  and  spirit  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  and  some  have  recently  with- 
drawn to  its  bosom,  where  perhaps  they  always 
belonged.  But  the  rapid  increase  of  Puseyism  in 
the  establishment  within  five  years,  has  surprized 
none  but  churchmen  themselves.  Neither  Catho- 
lics or  Dissenters  have  ever  regarded  them  as  very 
widely  separated  from  the  mother  church,  and 
have  been  astonished  that  they  did  not  long  ago  go 
back  into  the  arms  of  the  papacy,  from  which  they 
had  wandered.  It  will  not  be  long  before  one  of 
two  things  takes  place — either  Puseyism  will  win 
the  laurels,  the  spoils  and  the  power  of  the  estab- 
lishment to  its  own  hands,  and  introduce  those 
slight  changes  necessary  to  constitute  it  once  more 
a  papal  church, — (with  the  exception  perhaps  of 
the  acknowledgment  of  the  absolute  supremacy 
of  the  Pope,)  or  the  half  fought  battle  of  the  Re- 
formation must  be  again  tried,  and  a  final  separa- 
tion rend  the  two  parties  asunder.  So  much  of 
the  moral  power  of  the  Church  of  England  has 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  167 

been  drawn  off  to  swell  the  ranks  of  dissenters, 
that  it  is  considered  questionable,  whether  it  dare 
risk  such  a  collision  or  whether  even  a  majority 
of  the  church  desire  it. 

I  have  not  thus  dwelt  upon  the  church  as  a 
separate  institution,  nor  have  I  assailed  it  as  a 
sectarian,  I  have  had  another  object  in  exhibiting 
its  principles  and  character.  The  church  is  inter- 
woven with  the  fate  of  England,  hence  it  is  neces- 
sary to  know  its  strength  or  weakness,  to  come 
ultimately  to  a  correct  conclusion  concerning  the 
final  result. 

In  reviewing  the  preceding  pages,  we  find  the 
church  had  its  origin  in  an  amorous  passion  of 
Henry  VIII — that  it  has  lived  by  extortion  and 
oppression,  which  are  always  united  with  corrup- 
tion— and  that  its  clergy  are  a  part  of  the  aristoc- 
racy of  the  realm,  and  hence  bound  with  them  in 
the  same  interests  and  probably  destined  to  the 
same  fate. 

That  a  church  of  Christ  should  oppress  the 
poor,  is  sufficient  disgrace — but  that  it  should  by 
its  ecclesiastical  courts  lock  up  men  and  women 
in  prison  because  they  will  not  violate  their  con- 
sciences, is  a  fearful  crime.  These  things  cannot 
continue.  This  is  too  barefaced  a  lie,  amid  the 
multitude  that  see  it,  there  will  yet  be  found  a 
Luther,  or  a  Knox  to  speak.  All  reformers  have 
risen  from  the  ranks  of  the  people.  They  are 
things  which  cannot  enter  into  the  calculations  of 
legislators  in  providing  for  the  future,  nor  come 


168  PRESENT    CONDITION    OF 

within  the  scope  of  their  jurisdiction  when  they 
appear.  Heaven  sent,  they  are  heaven-guarded. 
With  a  message  from  God,  they  are  protected  till 
its  delivery.  The  barriers  of  power  melt  to  their 
touch.  The  ponderous  gates  of  the  prison  house 
of  humanity,  swing  open  at  their  approach,  for  an 
angel  is  beside  the  Paul  and  the  Silas.  There  is 
something  about  them  that  calls  forth  and  concen- 
trates all  the  slumbering  energies  of  the  timorous 
and  the  doubting  They  constitute  a  central 
force,  around  which  swing  all  the  descendant 
elements,  and  separate  parties  that  have  been 
working  for  the  same  thing  in  not  the  same  way. 
Their  words  are  charmed  words,  combining  and 
harmonizing  multitudes  in  a  moment.  Their 
action  and  their  language,  authenticate  their 
commission.  The  people  feel  it  and  in  them 
behold  the  pillar  of  fire  that  is  to  guide  them  to 
liberty.  They  create  a  panic  when  they  appear, 
which  cannot  be  controlled — a  courage  which 
cannot  be  resisted. 

Let  England  beware  of  such  men.  If  her  agi- 
tation and  trouble  do  not  yet  throw  them  up,  she 
will  be  an  exception  to  the  general  law  of  nations. 
It  will  happen.  The  few  who  are  carefully 
watching  the  motion  of  the  tide  as  it  rolls  on  are 
waiting  for  the  crisis.  One  of  them  has  said,  in 
speaking  of  the  incarceration  of  Baines — "  Be  sure 
however  of  this,  if  there  be  really  a  soul  in  man, 
or  a  God  in  heaven,  it  cannot  be,  if  church  courts . 
are  to  continue,  to  commit  men  to  prison,  but  that 


THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  169 

some  one  or  other  shall  rise  up.  who  after  admit- 
ting all  that  can  be  urged  against  a  mistaken  and 
erring  man,  shall  yet  speak  such  words  of  thunder 
on  the  mere  fact  of  his  ecclesiastical  incarceration, 
and  strike  such  flashes  of  fire  from  his  chains,  as 
shall  startle  the  indifferent,  and  cure  the  dumb." 


VOL.   I.  15 


BOOK  THE  FOURTH. 

(The  same  subject  continued.) 


A   SHORT    REPLY    TO     *  THE   FAME   AND 
GLORY    OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED." 


The  coarse  inventions  of  Englishmen  who  have  either  visited 
us  for  the  express  purpose  of  manufacturing  libels,  or  betaken 
themselves  to  this  expedient  on  their  return  home  as  a  profitable 
speculation — by  such  men  it  is  thought  harsh  and  uncharitable 
to  touch  the  sores  and  blotches  of  the  British  nation. — Robert 
Walsh. 

The  English  boast  of  liberty !  But  there  is  no  liberty  in  Eng- 
land for  the  poor. — Southey. 

The  country  blooms,  a  garden  and  a  gravel — Goldsmith. 

God  knows  that  much  evil  much  tyranny,  much  individual 
suffering  must  exist  under  our  present  political  arrangements. — 
— London  Quarterly  Review,  Dec.  1839. 

For  many  years,  very  scandalous  attempts  were  made  to  dis- 
turb this  good  understanding  between  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States,  by  miserable  and  wretched  attacks  upon  the 
domestic  habits  and  manners  of  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States  *  *  *  But  the  days  of  Anti-American  pamphleteers, 
reviewers,  and  novelists  have  been  numbered.  The  dynasty  of 
the  Trollopes  has  been  overthrown.  Abuse  of  America  is  now 
confined  almost  exclusively  to  the  violent  Tory  papers;  thus 
marking  the  quarters  from  which  such  abuse  is  likely  to  proceed, 
and  the  personages  to  whom  it  is  presumed  to  be  acceptable. 
— Edinburgh  Review,  July,  1840. 


BOOK  FOURTH. 

(The  same  subject  continued.) 

A    SHORT    REPLY    TO    "  THE    FAME    AND     GLORY 
OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED." 

IN  a  work  of  the  title  indicated  above,  a  writer, 
contemptibly  ensconced  behind  the  screen  of  the 
anonymous,  impudent  misnomer  of  "Libertas," 
has  undertaken  to  attack,  not  only  my  book,  but 
myself — with  a  malignity  seldom  exhibited  even 
in  political  controversy.  He  has  bestowed  three 
hundred  pages  upon  me — I  can  afford  him  but  a 
few  in  return,  and  even  these  are  not  for  his  sake, 
but  for  the  sake  of  truth,  and  for  the  benefit  of  my 
readers.  Although  it  may  seem  like  digging  up 
the  dead,  to  bring  before  the  public  a  book  which 
was  buried  at  its  birth  ;  yet  I  wish  to  "  wake  it 
from  its  well  merited  oblivion,"  for  the  purpose  of 
showing  more  clearly  the  spirit  of  English  Tory- 
ism, as  it  manifests  itself  towards  the  Republican 
Institutions  of  America,  and  the  progress  of  the 
democratic  principle  in  Europe.  For  although 
15* 


174       SHORT    REPLY    TO    "  THE    FAME    AND 

the  work  in  question  is  destitute  of  the  talent,  it  is 
filled  with  the  spirit  of  the  bitterest  of  Tory  writers. 
Had  the  writer's  assertions  been  true,  methinks 
less  time  and  labour  would  have  accomplished  his 
object — much  less  time  and  labour  at  least  shall 
accomplish  mine. 

In  answer  to  the  charge  of  plagiarism,  I  refer 
the  reader  to  my  letter  to  Mr.  Greely,  which  will 
be  found  in  the  Appendix.  The  other  charges 
rest  solely  on  the  unsupported  assertion  of  their 
author.  How  far  that  can  be  relied  on,  I  will  show 
before  I  have  done  with  him.  In  the  few  pages  I 
devote  to  "Libertas,"  I  shall  attempt  to  prove 
three  things,  which  will  embrace  all  I  wish  to  say. 
1.  THAT  HIS  ASSERTIONS  ARE  RASH,  INDIS- 
CRIMINATE, AND  OFTEN  CONTRADICTORY.  2. 

THAT  HIS  STATISTICS  ARE  MANY  OF  THEM 
WRONG,.  AND  CANNOT  BE  RELIED  ON.  3.  TlIAT 
HE  HAS  NO  REGARD  FOR  THE  TRUTH  WHEN  IT 
COMES  IN  COLLISION  WITH  HIS  PASSIONS. 

1.  His  assertions  are  rash,  indiscriminate,  and 
often  contradictory.  They  are  rash,  in  that  they 
make  charges  without  proof,  not  only  against  me, 
but  against  men  whose  wisdom  and  integrity  no 
one  has  before  impeached.  Judge  Jay,  for  in- 
stance, is  accused  of  "ignorance" — Dr.  Bo  wring 
of  "loose  and  exaggerated  statements" — a  man 
who  was  thought  by  the-  British  Government  bet- 
ter qualified  than  any  other  person,  to  travel  over 
the  continent  to  collect  facts  for  the  nation's  use. 
Mr.  Hudson,  Gen,  Tallmadge,  Horace  Greoly,  the 


GLORY    OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       175 

gentlemen  of  the  Home  League,  indeed  all  the  il- 
lustrious statesmen  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic, 
whose  opinions  or  statistics  conflict  with  his  own, 
are  treated  with  the  utmost  contempt.  Now,  for 
an  Englishman  under  an  assumed  name,  to  sweep 
down  by  his  single  assertion,  men  so  well  known 
both  in  the  political  and  literary  world,  I  think 
even  himself,  in  a  cooler  moment,  will  acknow- 
ledge to  be  somewhat  rash.  The  repeated  asser- 
tion that  the  incidents  recorded  in  "The  Glory 
and  Shame  of  England"  are  false,  is  sustained 
only  by  such  questions  as  the  following — "  Now 
we  ask  if  such  vulgar  nonsense  could  have  been 
uttered  ?" — "  It  is  our  conviction  that  the  whole  is 
a  tissue  of  falsehoods," — "  It  cannot  be  true."  I 
could  write  after  each  of  his  statements  as  he  has 
after  mine,  "  It  is  not  true  ;"  but  such  things  be- 
come only  children.  Again  ;  it  is  asserted  that  I 
"  ought  to  be  ashamed  to  say  that  the  poor  are  op- 
pressed by  the  aristocracy  of  England/'  Really, 
I  do  not  know  which  excites  my  greatest  astonish- 
ment, the  effrontery  which  could  make  such  a 
statement,  or  the  credulity  that  supposed  it  would 
be  believed.  The  first  time  I  opened  the  book  I 
happened  to  fell  upon  this  extraordinary  sentence, 
and  meeting  soon  after  one  of  the  author's  coun- 
trymen, I  read  it  to  him,  and  mark  his  reply. 
"  No  man,"  he  indignantly  exclaimed,  "  ever  said 
that  but  a  Tory,  or  a  Tory's  slave.  Strange  idea 
surely  !  Why,  the  English  aristocracy  are  not 
satisfied  with  taking  a  poor  man's  shirt,  they  must 


176   SHORT  REPLY  TO  "THE  FAME  AND 

have  his  skin  /"  The  poor  not  oppressed  by  the 
aristocracy  !  This  is  a  discovery  no  other  man 
has  had  the  sagacity  to  make.  Who  then  are 
they  oppressed  by  ? 

The  complaints  that  all  over  the  land  go  up  to 
Heaven  from  ^mtuug  and  desperate  men — the 
neglected  workshops,  the  noiseless  factories,  the 
silent  hand-loom,  chartists'  "  petitions  that  have  to 
be  carted  for  their  size" — the  voluntary  exile  of 
thousands  from  your  shores  every  month  for  a 
free  land,  all  declare  trumpet-tongued  that  oppres- 
sion exists— that  in  the  language  of  the  Edinburgh 
Review,  "  the  wan  and  menacing  face  of  hunger 
scowls  on  us  every  where."  "England,"  says 
Sidney  Smith,  one  of  the  founders  of  this  Review, 
and  one  of  the  noblest  philanthropists  living — 
"  England  is  the  richest  country  in  the  world  ; 
but  in  no  country  is  there  so  much  individual 
suffering."  In  speaking  of  the  oppressive  charac- 
ter of  the  aristocracy,  he  says  "  they  are  opposed 
to  the  abolition  of  the  corn  law,  as  they  have  been 
to  every  measure  calculated  to  promote  the  general 
good." 

From  whose  sweat,  and  toil  and  starvation 
comes  the  wealth  that  supports  an  idle,  profligate 
and  unproductive  aristocracy?  So  long  ago  as 
1819,  the  Marquis  of  Tavistock,  (himself  an 
exception,)  said  in  Parliament,  "  Is  it  not  grievous 
to  reflect  that  the  house  has  rejected  with  indigna- 
tion the  income  tax,  and  when  other  taxes  are 
proposed  which  fall  upon  the  poor  and  the  dis- 


GLORY    OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       177 

tressed,  they  are  passed  with  acclamation  7  How 
happens  it  that  when  the  people  call  loudly  and 
earnestly  for  retrenchment  and  economy,  the 
ministers  backed  by  overwhelming  majorities, 
answer  them  by  imposing  fresh  taxes,  and  increas- 
ing their  overpowering  burdens  ?"  If  the  informa- 
tion you  display,  were  not  so  limited  and  peculiar, 
I  need  not  tell  you  that  Lord  Brougham  once  said 
"  one  might  plead  justification  for  saying  that  the 
hierarchy  and  the  aristocracy,  are  the  natural 
enemies  of  the  people,  for  they  have  always  been 
their  oppressors  \" 

Ought  not  Sydney  Smith,  the  Marquis  of  Tav- 
istock,  and  Lord  Brougham,  "  to  be  ashamed  to 
say  that  the  poor  are  oppressed  by  the  aristocracy !" 
It  occurs  to  me  now  that  it  may  have  been  foolish 
in  me  to  utter  in  so  many  different  forms  a  truth 
which  every  body  but  "  Libertas,"  knew  before. 

Another  remarkable  saying  of  "  Libertas"  is,  that 
for  me  to  declare  "  the  operatives  in  Spitalfields, 
or  any  other  part  of  Great  Britain  are  oppressed, 
is  utterly  untrue."  I  doubt  not  an  English  Tory 
would  differ  very  much  from  me  in  his  definition 
of  oppression.  But  if  being  compelled  to  sleep  in 
damp  cold  cellars  on  the  ground,  to  toil  eighteen 
or  twenty  hours  a  day  for  less  than  will  purchase 
food  necessary  to  sustain  life — to  suffer  privation 
and  want,  till  their  groanings  fill  the  land  they 
enrich,  and  to  have  a  part  even  of  these  hard 
earned  shillings  forced  away  by  the  bread  tax  to 
swell  the  income  of  the  land  owner ;  if  this  be 


178       SHORT    REPLY    TO    "  THE    FAME    AND 

not  oppression  in  the  name  of  humanity,  what  is? 
No  oppression  of  the  working  classes  in  England  ! 
I  know  not  whether  to  attribute  such  assertions 
more  to  the  ignorance  or  the  depravity  of  the 
writer  who  could  make  them. 

If  indeed  he  has  ever  been  in  England,  which 
I  am  sometimes  inclined  to  doubt,  has  he  ever 
walked  through  the  gloomy  districts  of  Spital- 
fields  or  the  lanes  of  Manchester,  Leeds,  Paisley, 
Bolton,  Liverpool  and  London  ?  Hear  the  words 
that  fell  from  the  lips  of  the  Premier  of  the  realm 
on  the  23d  February  last.  "  In  the  year  1836,  the 
distress  of  the  handloom-weavers  was  so  great 
that  a  reference  was  made  to  it  in  a  speech  from 
the  throne.  A  very  great  proportion  of  them 
(their  number  is  over  eight  hundred  thousand] 
were  unable  to  obtain  food  of  the  cheapest  de- 
scription, and  were  so  badly  clothed  that  they 
could  not  attend  divine  worship  or  send  their  chil- 
dren to  the  parish  schools,  few  of  them  having 
any  furniture  in  their  rooms,  and  many  of  them 
sleeping  on  straw  :  and  yet  with  all  this  suffer- 
ing, most  of  them  having  full  occupation,  and 
working  sixteen  hours  a  day  ;  and  this  distress 
occurring  at  a  period  when  corn  was  cheaper  than 
it  had  been  for  many  previous  years.1"  And  yet 
the  poor  are  not  oppressed  !  Why  the  wild  man 
of  the  forest ;  the  wandering  hoards  of  the  desert 
never  "  work  sixteen  hours  a  day,"  and  yet  who 
ever  heard  of  their  famishing  for  bread.  And 
what  is  their  boasted  English  civilization  worth, 


GLORY    OP    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       179 

if  it  can  elevate  the  few  only  at  the  expense  of 
such  enormous  suffering  and  slavery  among  the 
masses. 

The  stereotyped  argument  against  American 
slavery  is  often  summoned  in  "  Libertas"  to  his 
aid.  It  affords  us  another  exhibition  of  that 
"  transmarine  benevolence,"  so  common  in  Eng- 
land at  the  present  day,  "  which  sweeps  the  dis- 
tant horizon  for  objects  of  compassion,  but  as 
blind  as  a  bat  to  the  wretchedness  and  destitution 
abounding  at  their  own  doors."  These  words  I 
quote  from  Blackwood's  Magazine,  (Jan.  1842,)  in 
which  a  humane  and  powerful  writer,  whose  soul 
grown  sick  of  the  shallow  philanthropy  so  current 
in  English  society,  administers  the  following  caus- 
tic reproof.  It  meets  the  present  case  with  pecu- 
liar fitnesf!.  It  will  do  "  Libertas"  no  harm  to 
ponder  it  well. 

"  England  !  home  of  the  free,  asylum  of  the 
brave,  refuge  of  the  refugees,  and  so  forth — in 
heroic  prose,  and  yet  more  heroic  verse,  what  fine 
things  may  be  said  and  sung  on  this  self-glorify- 
ing subject,  to  the  great  joy  of  the  gods  and  god- 
desses in  one  shilling  and  two  shilling  galleries. 
Something  about  slaves  being  free  the  moment 
they  touch  British  soil,  regenerated,  disenthralled 
by  the  genius  of  universal  emancipation,  or  some 
such  trash  ;  it  is  truly  delightful  (?)  to  witness  the 
ardour  with  which  a  British  auditory,  compliments 
itself  upon  its  exclusive  humanity,  transmarine 
benevolence  and  free-trade  philanthropy.  There 


180      SHORT    REPLY    TO    "  THE    FAME    AND 

is  a  disease  well  known  to  opticians,  wherein  the 
patient  can  see  distinctly  objects  a  great  way  off, 
but  is  quite  incapable  of  distinguishing  such  as 
lie  immediately  under  his  nose  ;  the  artist  ap- 
plies a  spectacle  of  peculiar  construction  to  re- 
medy this  defect ;  we  think  it  would  be  a  vast  ad- 
vantage to  the  public  in  general,  if  ingenious  op- 
ticians would  tuni  their  attention  to  a  remedy  for 
that  long-sighted  benevolence  which  sweeps  the 
distant  horizon  for  objects  of  compassion,  but  is 
blind  as  a  bat  to  the  wretchedness  and  destitution 
abounding  at  their  own  doors ;  we  confess  we 
are  of  opinion  that  charity,  though  it  need  not 
end,  should  begin  at  home  ;  that  it  is  time  enough 
when  severe  distress  has  been  relieved  at  our  own 
door,  to  walk  to  the  other  end  of  the  earth  in 
search  of  foreign  beggars."  This,  I  conceive,  to 
be  a  sufficient  answer  to  that  spurious  philanthro- 
py that  affects  the  sympathy  of  a  brother  for  a 
negro  slave,  and  lashes  little  girls  naked  into  the 
coal  mines. 

Our  Tory  author  would  have  us  believe  the 
British  government  cannot  relieve  the  distress  of 
the  working  classes.  The  people  have  found  it 
does  not  intend  to  make  the  effort,  and  they  seem 
inclined  to  try  their  hand  at  it,  well  knowing  that 
men  who  legislate  for  themselves  never  starve. 
If  governments  of  modern  times,  with  all  the 
lights  of  Christianity ;  the  aids  of  science,  and  the 
rich  volumes  of  the  world's  experience,  cannot 
save  their  industrious  honest  citizens  from  starva- 


GLORY    OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       181 

tion,  in  a  land  of  plenty,  then  let  governments 
know  they  have  no  authentic  commission  from 
God  to  legislate  for  his  poor. 

The  groaning  millions  of  Britain  not  oppressed 
by  Britain's  Aristocracy  !  In  the  name  of  Eternal 
Justice,  what  then  is  oppression?  Why  even  Sir 
Robert  had  just  said  the  people  can  bear  no  more 
taxation  upon  the  necessaries  of  life,  leaving  his 
auditory  to  infer  what  was  entirely  superfluous  to 
say  in  words,  "  We  have  already  taxed  them  in- 
to pauperism."  The  whole  thing  reminds  us  of 
a  story  told  of  the  Irish  barrister,  who  on  being 
censured  by  his  brethren  for  disgracing  the  pro- 
fession by  taking  so  small  a  fee  as  a  half-guinea, 
replied,  "  Why,  what  the  devil,  would  you  have 
me  do,  gentlemen,  I  took  all  the  man  had." 

The  poor  best  know  their  own  sufferings  ;  let 
us  hear  them  speak.  In  the  early  part  of  October 
last,  a  working  man  rose  in  a  meeting  of  the 
Norwich  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gos- 
pel in  Foreign  Parts,  and  said,  "  I  was  six  years 
in  the  West  Indies,  between  St.  Thomas  and  Bar- 
badoes,  and  I  saw  how  the  slaves  ate  and  drank, 
and  how  they  were  treated,  and  I  do  standing 
here,  say,  so  HELP  ME  GOD,  I  WOULD  RATHER 

BE  A  SLAVE  IN  THE  PLANTATIONS,  THAN  BE  AS 

I  NOW  AM."  Another  working  man  said,  "  My 
condition  is  worse  than  that  of  the  African  slave, 
for  I  am  whipped  in  my  belly,  while  the  black 
slave  is  only  beaten  on  his  fat  back." 

Just  before  the  election  which  brought  the  Con- 

VOL.  i.  16 


182      SHORT    REPLY    TO    "  THE    FAME    AND 

servatives  into  power  again,  Mr.  Brotherton,  who 
had  represented  Manchester  in  Parliament  for  ten 
years,  said  in  addressing  the  working  men  of 
the  town,  "  The  landed  interest  have  a  monopoly 
which  raises  the  price  of  food  fifty  per  cent, 
higher  in  this  country  than  in  other  countries, 
and  this  for  the  benefit  of  the  Aristocracy. 
If  a  poor  man  goes  to  a  grocer's  shop  to  buy  arti- 
cles that  are  taxed,  the  taxation  is  so  unequal  that 
out  of  every  shilling  the  poor  man  lays  out,  5~d. 
is  tax  ;  but  out  of  every  shilling  the  rich  man  lays 
out,  only  2kd.  is  tax.  The  Corn  Laws  rob  every 
poor  man  of  every  third  loaf,  and  their  families 
are  deprived  of  that  bread  in  order  that  it  may  be 
given  to  support  an  insolent  and  rapacious  aristoc- 
racy." I  think  even  Libertas  will  hesitate  before 
sweeping  the  authority  of  Brotherton  to  the 
ground. 

In  assailing  the  political  equality  of  American 
citizens,  he  says,  "  The  political  privileges  of  the 
United  States  have  been  readily  and  unwisely 
bestowed  on  these  foreigners."  If  many  of  them 
cherished  the  despotic  principles  of  the  one  whose 
insolent  falsehoods  extort  the  present  reply,  I 
might  agree  with  him,  for  we  cannot  be  too  jea- 
lous of  the  invasion  of  tyranny.  But  most  fo- 
reigners who  come  to  our  shores  have  been  too 
effectually  cured  of  all  partiality  for  despotism  by 
the  tyranny  which  exiled  them  from  the  land  of 
their  birth,  ever  to  wish  to  see  it  established 
among  us. 


GLORY    OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       183 

But  a  writer  who  can  defend  the  alliance  of 
Church  and  State,  and  deny  that  oppression  ex- 
ists in  Great  Britain,  may  well  make  war  against 
political  equality.  I  doubt  not  it  offends  his 
sight  to  behold  the  shackles  fall  from  the  ship- 
loads of  his  hitherto-oppressed  countrymen  when 
they  reach  our  shores,  to  see  them  have  a  voice  in 
the  administration  of  the  government  which  con- 
trouls  their  interests.  To  me  I  confess  it  is  a 
pleasing  spectacle. 

"  They  touch %ur  country  and  their  shackles  fall." 

They  who  have  always  been  bowed  down 
under  despotism,  find  when  they  stand  upon  the 
soil  of  the  New  World  they  are  men. 

He  also  says,  "  These  privileges  are  alike  in- 
jurious to  the  holders  themselves,  and  to  the 
Union  at  large,"  and  expatiates  upon  "  the  despo- 
tism of  the  majority,"  thinking  it  worse  than  the 
consolidated  tyranny  of  the  English  Aristocracy. 
Now  I  am  much  of  the  opinion  of  the  Irishman, 
who  in  signing  an  Anti-Corn  Law  petition,  re- 
minded the  landlords  that  when  it  seemed  to  him 
desirable  he  should  die  of  starvation,  he  wished 
the  privilege  of  starving  himself,  and  when  their 
assistance  became  necessary  he  would  "just  give 
them  a  call" 

This  bugbear  of  the  "  despotism  of  the  major- 
ity," which  has  been  so  universally  harped  upon 
by  the  enemies  of  Republicanism  in  Europe,  is 


184       SHORT    REPLY    TO    "  THE    FAME    AND 

thus  disposed  of  by  the  Edinburgh  Review,  (Oct. 
1840  :)  "  Yet  neither  ought  we  to  forget  that  this 
lawless  violence  is  not  so  great,  because  not  so 
lasting  an  evil  as  tyranny,  through  the  medium 
of  law.  The  despotism,  therefore,  of  the  major- 
ity within  the  limits  of  civil  life,  though  a  real 
evil,  does  not  appear  to  us  a  formidable  one."  The 
writer  might  have  added,  that  our  experience  as  a 
nation  thus  far,  proves  most  conclusively  that  no 
form  of  government  is  so  exempt  from  violent  agi- 
tations and  tumultuous  riots  as  our  own.  Every 
English  newspaper  we  take  up  contains  some  ac- 
count of  riots  and  bloodshed.  It  is  well  known 
that  during  the  last  election  in  England,  the  island 
was  the  scene  of  numberless  outrages,  and  that 
they  were  attended  with  savage  ferocity.  A  stand- 
ing army  and  a  numerous  and  vigilant  police  dis- 
tributed over  the  whole  country,  are  unable  to  pre- 
vent these  outbreaks — they  are  constantly  occur- 
ring, and  they  will  continue,  so  long  as  the  people 
feel  that  they  are  trampled  in  the  dust.  How  was 
it  during  the  Presidential  election  in  this  country 
in  1840  ?  We  have  the  assertion  of  the  London 
Morning  Advertiser,  that  although  the  excitement 
which  attended  that  great  struggle  was  unprece- 
dented, yet  not  a  life  was  lost  amidst  the  agitations 
of  seventeen  millions  of  people,  nor  even  a  serious 
disturbance  witnessed. 

Aristocrats  have  always  rung  changes  on  the  old 
adage  of  tyranny,  that  "the  mass  are  not  qualified 
to  govern  themselves."  In  reply  to  this,  Sidney 


GLORY    OP    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       185 

Smith  has  a  word  worth  your  attention.  "  O 
happy  Ireland  !  what  protecting  angels  have  the 
aristocracy  been  to  you  !  Look  at  your  bold 
peasantry ;  not  above  a  fourth  part  of  them  desti- 
tute of  all  food,  and  nearly  a  half  that  have  a  po- 
tatoe  per  day,  and  a  few  with  'point'  into  the  bar- 
gain. Behold  that  noble  contempt  for  luxuries, 
with  which  they  export  millions  of  quarters  of 
corn,  and  pounds  of  butter,  cheese,  and  ham,  while 
they  philosophically  starve  at  home,  under  their 
own  cabin  and  corn-bill,  with  none  to  make  them 
afraid ;  nay,  with  many  to  be  afraid  of  them.  See 
how  plump  and  fat  the  Corn  Law  has  made  them. 
My  friends  it  is  a  bitter  mirth  which  rules  us  in 
thus  treating  this  subject." 

One  thing  has  been  demonstrated  by  the  experi- 
ments of  past  ages  ;  that  if  the  people  are  not  qual- 
ified to  govern  themselves,  aristocrats  and  kings 
are  not.  How  have  the  masses  always  been 
abused,  stripped  of  their  rights,  oppressed,  devour- 
ed ?  What  is  history  ?  Blood,  toil,  agony,  and 
tears  !  What  have  earth's  millions  gained  by  the 
sweat  and  labour  of  six  thousand  years  1  And 
yet  this  has  not  been  the  doing  of  the  people. 
Hitherto  in  the  old  world,  they  have  had  "nothing 
to  do  with  the  laws,  but  to  obey  them."  Let  their 
miseries  then  be  laid  at  the  door  of  the  tyrants  who 
have  enslaved  them.  "  The  people  not  qualified 
to  govern  themselves?"  How  is  this  known? 
They  have  never  had  a  chance  to  make  the  expe- 
riment ! 

16* 


186   SHORT  REPLY  TO  "THE  FAME  AND 

But  "  Libertas "  ventures  some  statements  that 
have  excited  my  astonishment  still  more  than  any- 
thing I  have  yet  quoted. 

"When  wages  are  nearly  equal,  the  working 
man's  money  will  go  farther,  and  provide  him 
more  comfort  in  England  than  in  America ;"  and 
he  asserts  that  our  "  government  and  laws  have 
imposed  heavier  burdens  on  the  working  man 
here,  than  in  the  old  country."  (102  p.) 

The  author  must  have  either  known  these  as- 
sertions to  be  false  when  he  made  them,  or  his 
ignorance  utterly  disqualified  him  to  discuss  the 
subject — for  such  extravagant  statements  an  intel- 
ligent man  cannot  believe.  I  shall  say  but  a 
word  in  reply  to  them  in  this  place  :  but  in  other 
chapters  of  the  present  work,  he  will  find  facts 
which  no  man  in  his  senses  will  think  of  disputing; 
demonstrating  that  there  is  no  country  in  the 
world  where  the  working  classes  have  such  heavy 
burdens  to  bear  as  in  Great  Britain.  For  the  pre- 
sent, let  me  quote  a  few  words  from  British  author- 
ities, for  the  illumination  of  this  British  writer. 
Says  the  Edinburgh  Review,  (Oct.  1840:)  "Ame- 
rica is  all  middle  class  :  the  whole  people  being  in 
a  condition,  both  as  to  education  and  pecuniary 
means,  corresponding  to  the  middle  classes  here." 
Every  man  knows  that  this  would  not  be  the  case, 
unless  the  same  equality  of  rights  and  privileges 
existed,  that  we  see  in  their  condition. 

The  Hon.  Charles  Augustus  Murray,  grandson 
of  Lord  Dunmore,  who  was  governor  of  Virginia 


GLORY    OP    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       187 

at  the  beginning-  of  the  Revolution,  and  who  ex- 
perienced treatment  from  the  sons  of  the  Old  Do- 
minion upon  which  his  grandson  would  not  be 
likely  to  look  back  with  pleasure,  in  his  interest- 
ing and  candid  work  on  the  United  States,  says, 
"  If  a  practical  statesman  were  required  to  point 
out  two  principal  a  priori  tests  of  the  permanent 
prosperity  of  a  nation,  I  think  he  could  scarcely 
select  any  preferable  to  those  adduced  ;  first,  that 
every  adult  should  be  able  to  read  and  write ;  se- 
condly, that  every  able  bodied  man,  willing  to 
work,  should  find  employment  at  a  rate  of  wages 
sufficient  to  ensure  him  the  necessaries  and  con- 
veniences of  life.  Both  these  propositions,  allow- 
ing for  the  exceptions  necessarily  incident  to  any 
broad  political  statement,  may  be  generally  af- 
firmed in  respect  to  the  United  States.  It  is  a 
fact  no  less  surprizing  than  pleasing  to  record, 
that  during  two  years  spent  in  travelling  through 
every  part  of  the  Union,  I  have  only  once  been 
asked  for  alms,  and  that  once  was  by  a  female 
who  was  very  unwell,  and  who,  although  de- 
cently dressed,  told  me  that  she  wanted  a  bit  of 
money  to  buy  some  food." 

At  a  public  meeting  held  in  Liverpool  last  fall, 
an  English  gentleman  who  had  jtlst  returned  from 
a  tqjir  through  the  United  States,  in  contrasting 
the  condition  of  the  labouring  classes  in  the  two 
nations  said  "  labourers  in  the  West,  who  can  do 
nothing  but  dig,  earn  a  dollar  and  a  half  a  day, 
and  obtain  board  and  lodgings  for  two  dollars 


188   SHORT  REPLY  TO  "THE  FAME  AND 

and  a  half  a  week.  Flour  in  New  Orleans  and 
Cincinatti  is  $3  and  $4  a  barrel,  in  Liverpool  it  is 
$10,  and  oftener  higher."  In  speaking  of  Lowell, 
which  had  been  in  existence  only  fifteen  years, 
and  yet  contained  25,000  inhabitants,  and  employ- 
ed a  capital  of  $10,000,000  in  manufactures,  he 
said,  "  When  I  saw  the  female  operatives  come 
from  the  factories,  I  could  not  distinguish  them 
from  well-dressed  young  ladies  ;  their  wages  were 
from  $1  50cts.  to  $2  50cts.  clear  of  board  and 
lodgings.  This  is  not  the  state  of  things  we  find 
in  our  manufacturing  towns.  The  first  sight  I 
saw  on  landing  at  Liverpool  was  a  female  picking 
up  dung  in  the  streets  with  which  to  buy  taxed 
bread."  A  spectacle  which  presents  itself  to  the 
stranger  in  every  large  town,  and  on  all  the  great 
roads  of  the  kingdom. 

It  is  said  (page  244)  that  '  along  with  a  few 
wicked  and  unprincipled  men,  called  Chartists,  I 
set  up  a  whine  about  adding  to  the  national  debt.' 
The  same  as  to  say,  that  none  but  Chartists  ob- 
ject to  an  increase  of  the  national  debt.  The 
great  liberal  party,  he  well  knows,  have  always 
been  opposed  to  it,  and  he  will  find  but  few  men 
in  the  nation  who  do  not  consider  it  the  great  ca- 
lamity of  England.  Even  Sir  Robert  Peel  thinks 
direct  taxation,  (seldom  resorted  to,  except  in  time 
of  war,)  better  than  to  augment  the  already  enor- 
mous burden  that  presses  upon  the  nation.  And 
Blackwood's  Magazine,  certainly  never  charged 
with  Radicalism,  recommends  that  the  head  of 


GLORY    OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       189 

every  Prime  Minister  who  increases  the  debt,  be 
made  to  roll  upon  the  execution  block.  It  says, 
"  that  debt  is  the  great  calamity  of  England  ;  the 
great  source  of  those  perpetual  discontents  which 
show  the  distempered  state  of  the  frame  ;  the  se- 
cret of  that  strange  and  desperate  poverty,  which 
in  one  of  the  most  fertile  and  lovely  countries  of 
the  world,  places  the  free  peasant  of  England 
below  the  comforts  of  the  foreign  slave ;  the 
fount  of  those  unquenched  subterranean  fires 
which  burst  up  in  Chartism  and  Socialism,  and 
the  hundred  other  wild  and  ominous  threateners 
of  general  evil.  To  what  conclusion  this  formi- 
dable future  may  come,  baffles  all  conjecture.  But 
to  diminish  the  public  debt  of  England  should  be 
the  grand  object  of  every  man  who  deserves  to 
govern  the  country;  and  to  suffer  its  increase 
should  be  rewarded  with  the  scaffold.  It  is  sub- 
stantial high  treason  to  the  empire  /"  My  whine 
seems  to  chime  in  very  harmoniously  with  the 
"  whine"  of  the  great  organ  of  the  Conservatives. 
It  is  something  more  than  a  "  whine"  from  "  a 
few  Chartists"  who  happen  to  number  at  the  pre- 
sent time  THREE  MILLION  AND  A  QUARTER  ON 
ONE  PETITION  TO  PARLIAMENT.  It  IS  a  growl 

from  this  fourth  part  of  the  adult  population  of 
England.  A  very  ominous  growl ! 

If  it  were  not  too  solemn  a  matter  for  burlesque, 
I  should  be  tempted  to  indulge  a  moment  of  mer- 
riment over  the  grave  assertion  that  all  the  people 
of  England  enjoy  equal  rights.  It  is  too  palpa- 


190   SHORT  REPLY  TO  "  THE  FAME  AND 

bly  false  to  need  refutation,  and  too  sad  a  theme 
for  ridicule.  In  various  parts  of  my  work  will  be 
found  evidence  which  it  will  require  something 
more  potent  than  the  assertion  of  an  anonymous 
writer,  or  even  his  statistics  to  overthrow,  that 
although  the  working  classes  pay  a  vast  sum  every 
year  to  support  the  government,  yet  this  sum 
falls  far  short  of  the  grand  aggregate  wrung 
from  them  to  enrich  the  aristocracy  !  My  sta- 
tistics on  this  subject  will  illustrate  the  humanity 
of  that  class  of  men  you  would  have  us  believe 
to  be  so  vigilant  of  the  rights  and  interests  of  the 
poor. 

The  remark  is  made  by  "  Libertas,"  that  I  esti- 
mate the  amount  of  grain  consumed  in  Great  Bri- 
tain too  high  by  64,000,000  bushels  per  annum. 
Possibly ;  but  it  only  places  his  "  well-fed"  "  free," 
"  happy,"  people,  in  a  far  worse  condition  than  I 
supposed  they  were.  He  has  said  much  of  the 
comparative  amount  of  bread  consumed  in  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States.  Let  us  come  to 
facts  and  figures. 

"  Sixty  million  quarters,"  (or  480,000,000  bush- 
els) you  say,  "  is  all  the  grain  of  all  kinds  which 
can  be  made  into  bread.1'  This  is  the  estimate 
of  M'Culloch  ;  he  says,  "  the  annual  average  con- 
sumption of  the  different  kinds  of  grain  in  the 
United  Kingdom,  cannot  be  estimated  at  less  than 
44  million  quarters,  (or  352,000,000  bushels,)  ex- 
clusive of  seed"  estimating  the  population  of  the 
United  Kingdom  at  27,000,000,  and  we  have  13 jV 


GLORY    OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       191 

bushels  for  every  person.  But  if  we  deduct  from 
this  estimate,  the  amount  consumed  by  animals, 
used  in  beer,  spirits,  and  the  various  manufactures 
which  Dr.  Colquin  supposes  to  be  T\,  and  M'Cul- 
loch  considers  this  an  accurate  calculation,  it  will 
leave  less  than  eight  bushels  of  grain  for  the  aver- 
age yearly  consumption  of  each  person. 

A  late  number  of  Hunt's  Commercial  Magazine, 
which  is  perhaps  as  high  authority  as  any  other 
in  the  country,  says  that  "  by  the  returns  of  the 
United  States  Marshals,  for  taking  the  census  in 
June  1840,  it  appears  that  over  thirty  eight 
bushels  of  bread  stuffs  for  every  inhabitant  in 
the  country  were  raised  in  1839,  in  the  United 
States — after  deducting  all  that  is  consumed  by 
stock,  manufactured,  sown,  and  exported,  it  leaves 
over  twenty  bushels  for  every  man  woman  and 
child  in  the  union  /"  Is  it  possible  that  English- 
men have  learned  to  subsist  upon  one  third  as 
much  of  the  necessaries  of  life  as  Americans  ? 
They  must  have  reduced  the  art  of  starvation  to 
admirable  perfection.  And  yet  with  these  facts 
before  him,  he  attempts  to  show  that  because 
there  is  as  much  or  more  butchers' meat  consumed 
in  London  in  proportion  to  the  population  as 
there  was  ninety  years  ago,  therefore  the  people 
are  all  well  fed.  This  is  a  kind  of  logic  "Liber- 
tas"  seems  to  be  particularly  fond  of.  One  ques- 
tion will  dissipate  all  the  fog  he  has  gathered 
around  his  argument,  by  a  mass  of  statistics. 
Who  eats  all  this  meat?  He  well  knows  that  vast 


192      SHORT    REPLY   TO    "  THE    FAME    AND 

multitudes  of  the  British  people  scarcely  even 
taste  of  butchers'  meat  from  one  year's  end  to 
another.  I  must  here  occupy  no  more  space  than 
is  necessary  for  one  extract,  and  then  refer  to  the 
statistics  in  that  part  of  this  work  in  which  I  treat 
of  the  condition  of  the  mass  of  the  "  beef-eating" 
countrymen  of  our  author.  Says  W.  E.  Hickson 
Esq.  in  his  report  on  the  condition  of  the  working 
classes.  "But  taking  the  whole  body  of  agricul- 
tural labourers  supposed  to  derive  the  greatest 
practical  benefit  from  our  corn-laws,  beef  and 
mutton  as  articles  of  food  among-  them  are 
almost  unknown  from  the  north  of  England  to 
the  south."  I  quote  from  Mr.  Hickson,  because 
his  authority  is  conclusive  on  this  matter. 

Again,  in  speaking  of  emigration,  "Libertas" 
says,  "  America  is  very  jealous  of  the  introduction 
of  more  paupers  into  the  country — she  imposes  a 
tax  on  all  emigrants  on  their  arrival,  to  cover  the 
risk  of  pauperism."— Can  he  blame  us  for  so  doing, 
when  he  considers  that  England  is  constantly 
casting  upon  our  shores  the  contents  of  her  work- 
houses, jails,  hospitals  and  prisons?  From  all  the 
statistics  I  have  been  able  to  gather,  and  from 
conversations  with  a  large  number  of  magistrates 
and  judges,  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
more  than  one  third  of  all  the  crimes  committed 
in  the  United  States  of  every  description  are  com- 
mitted by  foreigners — that  one  half  of  all  the  free 
people  of  the  United  States,  who  can  neither  read 
nor  write  are  foreigners.  A  proportion  of  nearly 


GLORY    OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED. 


193 


if  not  quite  ten  to  one,  when  we  consider  the  pro- 
portion which  foreigners  bear  to  our  native  popu- 
lation. And  this  I  do  not  set  down  so  much 
against  the  emigrants  themselves,  as  I  do  against 
the  government  which  has  starved  them  into  vice, 
and  then  exiled  them  from  its  shores.  But  for 
accurate  information  on  the  subject,  I  refer  you  to 
"  the  American  Quarterly  Review  for  1834,"  which 
says — "  In  the  city  of  New  York  the  following 
extracts  have  been  obtained,  illustrative  of  the 
comparative  amount  of  poverty  and  crime  as 
existing  among  native  Americans  and  foreigners, 
from  all  parts  of  the  United  States. 


Penitentiary          ... 
Alms  House,  (Adults) 

"          "       (Children)      - 
Bellevue  Hospital,  (Sick)     - 
"  "        (Maniac) 

City  Hospital,  (1833)  - 

Actual  State 
House  of  Refuge,  (1833)      - 

Actual  State 
City  Dispensary, 

Male  In-door  Patients    - 

Female  do  do 
Male  Out-door  do 
Female  do  do 


Of  the  out-door  relief  bestowed  by  the  city  au- 
thorities, it  is  estimated  by  the  visiters,  that  eight 

VOL.    I.  17 


TOTAL. 

FOREIGNERS. 

593 

203  over 

3 

1355 

-   969   — 

2 

I 

772 

-   579   — 

f 

238 

-   170   — 

* 

177 

101  near 

2 
3 

1983 

-   908   — 

i 

2034 

.  1000   — 

i 

121 

72  over 

| 

174 

-   100   — 

* 

1126 

-   563   — 

| 

1670 

-   917  near 

| 

5555 

-  3666  over 

i 

7875 

.  4748   — 

! 

194   SHORT  REPLY  TO  "THE  FAME  AND 

out  of  ten  are  foreigners,  and  the  same  proportion 
may  be  fairly  assumed  for  charity." 

If  there  is  any  truth  in  these  statistics,  the 
duty  of  self-protection  manifestly  requires  us  to 
"  impose  a  tax  on  emigrants  to  cover  the  risk  of 
pauperism,"  for  it  appears  this  risk  is  no  small 
matter. 

"  This  is  not  done  in  England,"  he  remarks. 
What,  no  tax  imposed  !  And  is  not  England 
flooded  with  emigrants?  We  are,  with  a  tax. 
Her  ports  are  open  then,  oifering  an  asylum  to  the 
poor  and  the  oppressed  of  other  lands.  It  will  be 
a  long  time,  however,  I  fancy,  before  it  will  be  ne- 
cessary to  impose  a  tax  to  prevent  the  too  copious 
flow  of  emigration  to  her  shores.  A  tax  is  not  ne- 
cessary to  prevent  men  from  crowding  voluntarily 
to  Newgate.  The  world's  poor  do  not  often  flee 
into  that  glorious  land,  where  "  taxes  are  lower 
and  rents  cheaper  than  in  America," — where  "the 
government  watches  with  so  much  parental  care 
over  the  interests  of  the  poor."  The  most  striking 
instances  of  this  care,  that  now  occur  to  me,  have 
been  in  the  government's  providing  a  free  passage 
out  of  the  country,  to  citizens  she  had  made  pau- 
pers, and  whom  she  could  not  conveniently  sup- 
port any  longer.  It  is  a  singular  fact  too,  that  the 
parental  government  of  "Libertas"  should  have 
sent  so  many  of  them  to  this  country,  where  if  his 
statements  are  true,  they  were  sure  to  be  in  a  worse 
condition  than  they  were  before.  "  A  government 
should  represent  a  parent,"  says  Bulwer  :  "  with 


GLORY   OP    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       195 

us  it  represents  a  dun  with  the  bailiff  at  his 
heels." 

What  intelligent  man,  did  this  most  reckless  of 
writers  suppose  would  believe  him  to  speak  the 
truth,  when  he  said  "  that  instances  of  cruelty  in 
only  two  factories  can  be  found  in  evidence  laid 
before  Parliament,"  by  commissioners  appointed 
to  inquire  into  the  abuses  of  the  Factory  System — 
and  that  no  overseer  of  the  mills  could  ever  have 
been  allowed,  "  with  impunity,"  harshly  to  treat 
children  ?  It  cannot  be  that  he  is  aware  of  the 
evidence  laid  before  Parliament  on  the  subject,  or 
he  would  not  venture  such  assertions.  In  his 
"  England  and  the  English,"  after  extracting  a 
portion  of  the  "  dark  and  terrible  history  of  early 
suffering,  developed  in  the  evidence  on  the  Fac- 
tory Bill,"  Bulwer  says  :  "  /  could  go  on  multi- 
plying'these  examples  at  random  from  every 
page  of  this  huge  callender  of  childish  suffering" 
I  might  adduce  multitudes  of  instances  to  prove 
either  the  ignorance  or  the  insincerity  of  "  Liber- 
tas."  But  this  extract  from  Bulwer  will  probably 
suffice. 

But  he  more  than  insinuates  that  what  little 
abuse  is  inflicted  upon  factory  children,  is  not  done 
with  impunity;  that  the  tyrannical  perpetrators 
of  these  cruelties  are  always  brought  to  justice. 
Now  I  make  the  broad  assertion,  that  the  debates 
and  reports  of  Parliament  and  its  commissions, 
prove  hundreds,  if  not  thousands  of  such  cases  to 
have  existed,  and  the  indignation  of  the  humane 


196   SHORT  REPLY  TO  "THE  FAME  AND 

portion  of  the  British  nation  burst  forth,  because 
they  had  been  so  often  inflicted,  and  in  nearly  or 
quite  every  case,  inflicted  with  impunity. 

Said  Lord  Ashley,  who  has  distinguished  him- 
self for  the  deep  interest  he  has  manifested  for 
many  years  in  the  sufferings  of  the  operatives, 
"  Nothing  has  ever  more  deeply  excited  my  aston- 
ishment, or  my  indignation,  than  the  fact  that 
these  barbarous  cruelties,  of  which  we  have  heard 
so  much,  have  been  inflicted  with  impunity — that 
the  perpetrators  of  such  unheard  of  barbarities  have 
not  been  brought  to  justice." 

It  will  require  something  more  than  a  simple 
denial,  to  disprove  the  statements  I  made  in  regard 
to  the  present  sufferings  of  the  Factory  children. 
I  said  that  the  statutory  restrictions  of  Parliament 
had  produced  little  good — that  they  had  remained 
almost  a  dead  letter.  It  will  be  seen  from  the  ex- 
tract I  make  below,  that  Von  Raumer  holds  the 
same  opinion.  And  I  certainly  cannot  appeal  to 
a  writer  more  deserving  of  respect,  or  one  held  in 
higher  regard  by  all  parties  in  England.  He  says 
in  his  work  on  England,  "  Many  humane  persons 
have  maintained  that  the  children  who  work  in 
factories,  are  in  a  far  ivorse  condition  than  the 
apprentices  were  formerly,  or  even  their  Negro 
slaves.  *  *  These  children,  say  their  advo- 
cates, though  but  from  nine  to  fourteen  years  old, 
work  from  ten  to  sixteen  hours  a  day.  *  *  If 
the  time  of  labour  of  the  children  were  reduced, 
the  wages  must  of  course  be  reduced,  or  the  price 


GLORY    OP    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."        197 

of  manufactured  articles  raised  in  proportion.  But 
the  latter  is  impossible  on  account  of  the  competi- 
tion of  other  countries,  the  former  must  of  neces- 
sity be  resorted  to ;  in  which  case  the  condition  of 
the  workman  must  be  rendered  infinitely  worse 
by  this  pretended  relief.  And  so  it  has  turned 
out.  The  i  Factory  Bill]  for  regulating  the 
hours  of  labour,  providing  for  sending  the  child- 
ren to  school,  fyc.  has  remained  in  a  great 
measure  a  dead  letter  ;  and  the  masters  and  work- 
men of  manufactories  form  such  arrangements 
with  each  other  as  they  will  or  can." 

In  the  early  part  of  July  last,  I  was  told  by  a 
man  who  had  been  for  several  years  overlooker  in 
Ives  and  Sons'  large  factory  in  Duckinfield,  near 
Ashton-under-Line,  that  there  never  had  been  a 
time  when  the  factory  children,  as  well  as  all 
classes  of  operatives  had  been  in  such  a  state  of 
distress,  as  within  the  last  twelve  months.  "  The 
laws  in  regard  to  factory  children,"  said  he,  "  have 
never  been  regarded,  and  they  never  can  be.  The 
children  of  the  operatives  are  sent  to  the  mills  at 
as  early  an  age  as  ever,  and  worked  as  many 
hours.  All  the  provisions  of  the  law  are  evaded. 
It  will  do  no  good  to  legislate  against  people 
working  more  hours  than  the  health  can  bear, 
when  they  must  do  it  or  starve."  I  give  the  name 
of  this  person  as  I  may  wish  to  refer  to  him  again. 
Thomas  Timparly. 

The  assertion  of  "  Libertas"  in  regard  to  the 
factory  children  is  about  as  consistent  with  the 
17* 


198   SHORT  REPLY  TO  "  THE  FAME  AND 

truth,  as  his  repeated  statements,  that  speculation 
and  repudiation  in  America  have  been  the  princi- 
pal causes  of  the  appalling  distress  that  has  pre- 
vailed among  the  labouring  classes  in  England  ! 
Distress  from  whatever  source  it  comes,  I  trust 
will  always  awaken  my  sympathy,  and  although 
no  man  will  give  him  any  credit  for  such  an  as- 
sertion, yet  I  cannot  but  unite  with  the  writer  to 
whom  I  am  replying,  in  utter  condemnation  of 
the  outrageous  violations  of  justice,  honour,  and 
truth  which  have  characterized  the  acts  of  the  re- 
pudiating party  of  America.  All  good  men  among 
us  have  lifted  their  voice  against  the  unhallowed 
principle.  The  repudiation  of  the  State  Bonds 
has  caused  a  certain  kind  and  amount  of  distress 
in  England.  Many  a  family  has  felt  its  influence, 
and  some  few  have  been  cast  by  it  into  the  deep 
gloom  of  poverty  and  privation.  But  it  is  really 
amusing  to  see  it  referred  to  as  the  chief  cause  of 
that  distress  which  had  already  become  so  awful 
in  England  among  the  lower  classes  before  the 
repudiation  of  State  Bonds  was  thought  of.  The 
cause  of  that  terrible  distress  which  is  now 
wringing  the  hearts  of  the  poor  in  England  lies 
further  back  than  Mississippi  Bonds.  So  too, 
think  our  author's  countrymen,  attributing  as  they 
do  this  incalculable  suifering  to  a  long  series  of 
oppressive  misgovernment  in  past  ages,  in  which 
the  rights  and  happiness  of  the  many  have  been 
wickedly  and  wantonly  sacrificed  to  the  interests 
of  the  few.  This  has  been  made  sufficiently  to 


GLORY    OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."        199 

appear  in  my  former  chapter  on  the  Condition  of 
the  British  People  in  past  ages. 

"  When,"  asks  our  author,  with  an  appearance 
of  great  sincerity,  "  was  there  ever  an  instance  in 
Britain  of  the  people's  petitions  being  rejected  X" 
When,  I  would  ask,  was  there  ever  an  instance  of 
the  people's  petitions  being  granted  ?  If  in- 
stances can  be  adduced,  they  are  few.  How  long, 
and  how  unsuccessfully  have  millions  of  DISSEN- 
TERS prayed  to  be  delivered  from  the  heavy  bur- 
dens of  a  political  Church  ?  For  how  many  cen- 
turies has  IRELAND  insulted,  trodden  down, 
slaughtered  Ireland,  appealed  to  the  justice,  to 
the  honour,  to  the  tender  mercies  of  England  for 
relief?  And  she  still  prays  on,  half  desperate,  and 
famine-stricken,  hoping  that  her  prayers  will'  gain 
her  what  must  otherwise  be  won  by  the  revolu- 
tionary sword.  How  loud,  and  half  frantic  is  the 
prayer  of  three  millions  of  CHARTIST  sufferers,  to 
be  heard  in  their  defence  at  the  bar  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  numbering  among  their  ranks  two 
millions  of  disfranchised  men,  grown  desperate  by 
want,  and  many  thousand  tearful  mothers,  who 
can  no  longer  give  bread  to  their  starving  little 
ones.  One  would  suppose  such  a  prayer  would 
be  granted,  if  humanity  had  not  quite  left  the 
world.  Even  the  great  champion  of  the  Reform 
Bill,  Macauley,  unites  with  Sir  Robert  Peel  in 
slamming  the  doors  of  the  House  of  Commons  in 
the  face  of  these  petitioning  millions,  and  Parlia- 


200   SHORT  REPLY  TO  "  THE  FAME  AND 

ment  tells  them  to  go  home  to  their  hovels  and 
starve  on  ! 

How  long  since  Parliament  decided  that  when 
the  ministry  chose  to  levy  a  direct  tax  upon  the 
people,  the  people  should  not  possess  the  right  of 
petitioning  against  it,  unjust,  and  unnecessary 
though  it  might  be?  And  their  petitions  were 
accordingly  rejected,  "  unreceived,  unheard,  un- 
read and  unreferred."  How  many  times  have  the 
people  gone  with  their  prayers,  humbly  bending 
at  the  doors  of  Parliament,  only  to  be  turned 
away.  "  But  their  petitions  were  received,"  he 
says.  Yes,  generally,  and  if  he  had  finished  the 
sentence,  he  would  have  added,  "  and  sent  down 
to  the  tomb  of  all  the  Capulets,"  a  tomb,  by-the-by, 
from  which  they  will  come  forth  at  no  distant 
day. 

"  In  England,  the  jealousy  of  freedom,  forbids 
all  place-men  from  interfering  in  elections !  It 
would  be  well  if  "  Libertas"  had  passed  this 
matter  by  in  silence.  Before  the  passage  of  the 
Reform  Bill,  Earl  Grey  declared  that  a  decided 
majority  of  the  House  of  Commons  were  returned 
to  Parliament  through  the  patronage  of  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  four  powerful  individuals,  most  of 
whom  were  members  of  the  House  of  Lords. 
Sheridan  in  a  searching  and  sarcastic  speech  on 
the  overwhelming  power  of  the  aristocracy,  said 
with  characteristic  severity  and  truth,  "  all  these 
things  make  &  farce  of  an  English  Election." 

But  this,  it  will  be  answered,  was  before  the 


GLORY    OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       201 

Reform  Bill,  when  seats  in  Parliament  were  so'd 
by  their  patrons  to  the  highest  bidder  !  when 
Lord  Cochran  (June  20,  1817,)  made  his  open 
boast  in  Parliament  that  "  when  he  returned  to 
England  pretty  well  flushed  with  Spanish  gold, 
he  had  found  the  borough  of  Houston  open  and 
had  bargained  for  it — and  was  sure  he  would 
have  been  returned  had  he  been  Lord  Camelford's 
black  servant  or  his  great  dog."  The  rotten 
boroughs  have  been  disfranchised,  it  is  true  for  the 
most  part,  but  the  whole  representative  system 
in  England  is  rotten  still :  and  bribery  prevails 
to  an  extent  so  enormous,  there  is  no  freedom  in 
an  election,  worthy  of  the  name.  "  Libertas" 
knows,  or  at  least  ought  to  know,  that  a  large 
majority  of  the  House  of  Commons  are  elected 
entirely  through  the  influence  of  the  landed 
aristocracy.  That  only  a  small  portion  of  the 
people  are  allowed  to  vote,  and  that  only  a  frag- 
ment of  those  who  do  vote,  can  vote  against  the 
will  of  their  landlords  and  patrons  without  being 
subjected  to  heavy  sacrifices  for  their  independence. 
He  ought  to  know  too,  that  the  great  proportion 
of  the  office  holders  of  the  government  are  most 
actively,  although  secretly,  engaged  in  every  elec- 
tion— that  frauds,  threats,  bribery,  and  every 
engine  of  corruption  are  pressed  into  the  service 
of  the  parties  struggling  for  power.  Probably  no 
one  will  deny  this,  who  has  read  the  develop- 
ments made  in  the  House  of  Commons  in  refer- 
ence to  the  shameful,  miserable,  degrading  truth, 


202   SHORT  REPLY  TO  "THE  FAME  AND 

that  the  representation  of  the  English  constituen- 
cies is  systematically  bought  and  sold.  Mr.  Roe- 
buck boldly  charged  bribery  and  corruption  upon 
a  considerable  number  of  members,  calling  them 
by  name,  and  exposing  the  base  means  by  which 
they  had  gained  their  seats.  "Among  others 
more  or  less  flagrant,  was  the  constituency  of 
Nottingham,  which  had  been  bought  by  Sir  John 
Cam  Hobhouse,  the  intimate  friend  and  adviser 
of  Lord  Byron,  and  by  Sir  George  Larpent,  and 
sold  to  no  less  a  personage  than  Mr.  WALTER  of 
the  Times,  who  for  a  given  sum  of  money,  was 
to  be  permitted  by  his  whig  opponents  to  walk 
over  the  course,"  i.  e.  to  obtain  uncontested,  the 
vacant  seat.  The  TIMES  has  ever  been  foremost 
in  endeavouring  to  bring  discredit  on  Republican 
Institutions,  by  raking  up  from  the  lowest  partisan 
Journals  in  the  United  States,  the  crimination  and 
recrimination  bandied  about,  among  them,  on  the 
subject  of  "  Pipe  Laying,"  &c.  &c.,  and  publish- 
ing the  details  and  evidences  of  the  inevitable 
tendency  of  our  system.  Yet  here  we  find  the 
most  prominent  person  connected  with  that  paper 
buying  a  whole  constituency  like  a  flock  of 
sheep"  So  much  for  the  calumniators  of  Demo- 
cracy— fine  critics,  such  men,  of  American  Poli- 
tics ! — Mr.  Roebuck  unmoved  by  the  opposition 
levelled  against  him  from  all  sides  of  the  House, 
manfully  stood  his  ground,  and  amidst  the  writh- 
ings  of  Tories  and  Whigs,  struck  dumb  by  the 
exposure  of  their  villainy,  he  "  tore  off"  in  the 


GLORY    OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       203 

language  of  the  Dublin  Freeman,  "  the  hereditary 
mask  from  the  strumpet  face  of  aristocracy," — he 
demanded  from  Parliament  a  committee  of  Inquiry 
to  investigate  this  putrid  mass  of  "  honourable 
corruption,"  and  when  the  names  of  that  commit- 
tee were  announced,  Mr.  Buncombe  moved  "  that 
each  member  of  the  committee  should  subscribe 
in  the  presence  of  the  speaker,  a  declaration  that 
he  had  never  himself  or  by  his  agents,  been  guilty 
of  any  act  of  bribery  or  corruption  in  procuring  a 
seat  in  Parliament,  or  in  returning  any  member  or 
members.  This  gentleman  declared,  that,  with 
a  proper  committee,  he  would  undertake  to  prove 
that  the  great  majority  of  members  of  the  present 
house  were  returned  by  means  of  gross  bribery  or 
intimidation !" 

As  may  well  be  supposed,  such  a  House  would 
not  vote  for  an  exposure  of  their  own  shame,  and 
although  the  Committee  was  granted,  yet  only 
seventeen  members  could  be  found  in  the  whole 
House  of  Commons  to  vote  for  Mr.  Buncombe's 
motion  !  Most  of  the  London  Journals  conceded 
that  this  was  tantamount  to  a  confession  that 
there  were  only  seventeen  honest  men  in  the 
lower  House  of  Parliament.  So  much  for  all  this 
hollow  cant  about  the  jealousy  of  freedom,  pre- 
venting impurity  and  corruption  in  English  elec- 
tions ! 

It  is  a  gross  insult  to  truth  and  the  spirit  of 
liberty,  to  say  that  the  people  are  represented  in 
the  British  Parliament.  The  House  of  Com- 


204   SHORT  REPLY  TO  "  THE  FAME  AND 

mons  is  elected  by  the  privileged  classes  ;  and  it 
legislates  for  them,  and  them  alone. 

After  expatiating  at  length  on  the  immaculate 
purity  of  English  elections  and  the  unbounded 
liberty  of  the  people,  our  author  turns  to  America, 
to  lament  over  '•  the  serious  tax  of  their  time 
consumed  in  elections  ;"  and  this  is  one  of  the 
principal  items  in  the  load  of  abuses  and  burdens 
under  which  American  working  men  stagger  ! 
His  argument  then  amounts  to  this,  that  the  Eng- 
lish aristocracy  ever  solicitous  for  the  good  of  the 
lower  orders,  cannot  bear  to  see  them  waste  an 
hour  at  the  hustings,  particularly  when  there  is 
so  much  more  work  to  be  done  than  there  are 
labourers  to  do  it,  and  labour  is  so  abundantly 
paid,  and  they  have  from  these  lofty  and  humane 
motives,  kindly  taken  the  administration  of  affairs 
into  their  own  hands,  and  saved  the  people  the 
trouble  of  having  any  solicitude  about  the  mat- 
ter !  How  grateful  the  people  should  be  under 
these  superabundant  provisions  of  a  kind  and 
fatherly  aristocracy  !  Oh  !  Liberty,  what  oppres- 
sive terms  dost  thou  impose  upon  freemen  in 
compelling  them  to  chose  their  own  rulers  ! 

If  "  Libertas"  will  permit  me  to  offer  a  word  of 
advice,  I  would  suggest  that  his  help  is  greatly 
needed  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  just  now. 
If  his  principles  are  correct,  three  or  four  millions 
of  Chartists  have  made  a  terrible  mistake ;  so 
anxious  are  they  to  assume  the  tremendous  burden 
of  electing  their  own  rulers,  they  seem  pretty 


GLORY    OP    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       205 

much  determined  to  upset  the  government,  if  ne- 
cessary, to  accomplish  their  object.  These  men 
are  wrong — they  are  the  victims  of  a  destructive 
infatuation — they  need  light  and  guidance.  Had 
not  our  author  better  hurry  back  in  the  first  ship 
that  spreads  its  sails  for  England,  and  save  the 
deluded  Chartist  millions  from  such  a  wanton  sa- 
crifice of  their  present  liberty  and  leisure,  and  their 
sans  culotte  children  shall  rise  up  and  call  him 
blessed  ! 

Two  of  the  most  serious  accusations  brought 
against  me  in  the  book  here  under  review,  are, 
1st.  that  I  treated  Hon.  J.  C.  Calhoun  and  others 
I  addressed  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  with  cour- 
tesy. Li  pleading  guilty  to  this  charge,  I  must 
defend  myself  by  saying,  that  I  have  been  taught 
to  treat  all  men  with  becoming  respect,  and  all 
strangers  with  courtesy,  whatever  may  be  their 
opinions.  Southern  men  have  long  enough  been 
plied  with  brick  bats  and  insults  ;  it  is  time  they 
were  approached  with  candor  and  kindness,  and 
from  arguments  addressed  in  such  a  spirit,  they 
will  not  turn  away.  The  second  accusation  is, 
that  I  did  not  fill  my  book  with  "  the  horrors  and 
barbarities  of  American  slavery."  I  had  two  good 
reasons  for  not  doing  so  ;  first,  I  saw  more  slavery 
in  England  than  I  could  well  describe ;  and  se- 
cond, "  Libertas,"  and  men  of  the  like  genus,  had 
taken  such  special  pains  to  pourtray  these  "horrors 
and  barbarities,"  that  other  persons  have  been  saved 
the  trouble  !  But  I  have  already  devoted  too 

VOL.  i.  18 


206   SHORT  REPLY  TO  "THE  FAME  AND 

much  time  to  this  portion  of  his  work,  and  I  pro- 
ceed to  show— 

II.  THAT  ITS  STATISTICS  ARE  MANY  OF  THEM 

WRONG,  AND  CANNOT  BE    RELIED  ON. ItS  asper- 

sions  of  myself  I  care  not  for, — its  aspersions  of 
my  country  will  mislead  no  one, — but  its  statistics 
may  have  blinded  some  honest  though  ill-informed 
reader,  who  by  some  casualty  got  through  the 
book,  which  I  fear  I  too  much  honour  by  the  no- 
tice here  bestowed  upon  it.  I  would  correct  its 
mistakes  if  the  author  knew  no  better,  and  expose 
his  dishonesty  if,  as  I  am  inclined  to  believe,  he 
has  attempted  to  deceive. 

He  endeavours  to  show  that  the  CORN  LAWS 
have  raised  the  price  of  grain  in  England  only  3s. 
a  quarter  !  and,  therefore,  that  the  entire  tax  laid 
on  the  British  islands,  in  consequence  of  the  re- 
strictions on  the  corn  trade,  is  only  twenty-two 
and  a  half  million  dollars  per  annum.  One 
would  call  this  a  tax  of  some  magnitude  to  impose 
upon  the  poor  for  bread  ! — for  it  needs  no  argu- 
ment to  show  that  a  tax  upon  bread  falls  on  the 
consumers,  and  you  will  not  deny  that  the  great 
mass  of  them  are  poor.  By  his  mode  of  arranging 
figures,  "  Libertas "  can  prove  anything  that  is 
false  to  be  true.  He  goes  to  M'Culloch  for  statis- 
tics, and  selects  those  years  when  wheat  was  at 
its  highest  price  abroad,  and  then  compares  this 
price  with  those  years  when  wheat  was  at  its 
lowest  price  in  Great  Britain.  In  this  way  he 
could  prove  that  bread  is  always  dearer  in  the 


GLORY   OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       207 

United  States  than  in  England,  because  we  have 
one  year  imported  English  wheat !  And  the  ar- 
gument would  be  just  as  candid. 

He  appeals  to  M'Culloch  and  to  M'Culloch  we 
will  go,  and  demonstrate  that  he  has  either  blun- 
dered through  M'Culloch's  volumes  without  learn- 
ing his  opinions  or  his  facts,  or  that  he  has  entered 
into  a  base  attempt  to  deceive  his  reader,  appealing 
to  M'Culloch  only  to  give  currency  to  his  own  de- 
ceptions. I  well  know  the  ground  I  am  standing 
on,  and  to  my  statistics  I  invite  the  severest  criti- 
cism. In  M'Culloch's  Commercial  Dictionary, 
Vol.  I.  p.  505 — 15,  will  be  found  the  facts  I  give 
below.  In  order  to  ascertain  with  any  accuracy 
the  effect  of  the  Corn  Laws  in  raising  the  price  of 
food,  and  to  learn  the  comparative  price  of  grain 
in  Great  Britain  and  foreign  countries,  we  must 
find  out  its  average  cost  in  the  great  corn  markets 
of  England  and  of  Europe  since  1815,  when  the 
Corn  Law  was  first  enacted.  Such  an  estimate 
accurately  made  out  cannot  mislead  us. 

The  average  price  of  wheat  in  London,  from 
1815  to  1836,  twenty-one  years,  was  62s.  8f  e?.  per 
quarter.  Since  then,  as  "Libertas"  acknowledges, 
it  has  averaged  much  higher ;  all  kinds  of  grain 
in  London  being,  in  consequence  of  short  crops,  at 
starvation  prices.  Now  let  us  inquire  the  price  of 
wheat  in  the  other  great  corn  marts,  during  the 
same  period. 

M'Culloch  states  that  the  price  of  wheat  at 
Dantzic,  for  ten  years,  ending  with  1831,  (which 


208   SHORT  REPLY  TO  "  THE  FAME  AND 

are  the  only  years  for  which  he  gives  complete  re- 
turns,) was  885.  5d.  per  quarter,  or  29s.  3d.  less 
than  the  price  in  London.  The  price  in  Ham- 
burgh, during  the  same  period,  was  26s.  §\d.  or  a 
considerable  less  than  half  its  price  in  London. 
The  price  in  AMSTERDAM,  during  the  same  period, 
was  31s.  &\d.  or  half  the  price  in  London.  The 
price  in  ODESSA,  for  four  years,  ending  with  Jan- 
uary 1825,  was  only  18s.  3~d.,  and  since  then 
M'Culloch  states  that  it  has  been  even  below  that 
sum — averaging  not  more  than  16s.  or  only  a  trifle 
more  than  a  quarter  its  price  in  London.  The 
price  in  NEW- YORK,  during  the  same  period,  at 
from  37s.  to  40s. — say  38s.  lOd.  Sir  Robert  Peel 
says  its  price,  during  the  ten  years  embraced  in 
one  estimate,  was  only  33s.  lie?,  or  only  a  little 
more  than  half  the  price  in  London. 

From  this  review  of  prices,  at  these  four  great 
corn  markets  on  the  continent  and  in  New- York, 
for  ten  years,  we  find  the  average  price  of  wheat 
has  been  only  29s.  3d.,  while  it  has  been  at  Lon- 
don, during  the  same  ten  years,  61s.  8%d.  (see 
Com.  Die.  1  Vol.  p.  517)  or  more  than  double  the 
price.  These  are  the  most  complete  tables  M'Cul- 
loch gives.  By  extending  the  calculation  so  as 
to  embrace  a  greater  number  of  corn  markets,  and 
by  bringing  the  calculation  down  to  1842,  which 
I  should  be  enabled  to  do  by  referring  to  reports 
recently  presented  to  Parliament,  I  could  show 
that  a  greater  difference  has  existed  during  the 
last  ten  years,  between  the  price  of  wheat  in  Lon- 


GLORY    OP    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       209 

don  and  in  other  countries,  than  existed  during 
the  previous  ten  years.  But  since  "Libertas" 
appealed  to  M'Culloch,  I  will  confine  myself  to 
his  calculations. 

Now  to  ascertain  how  much  more  the  English- 
man pays  for  his  wheat  than  he  would  if  the  trade 
in  corn  were  left  free,  we  must  consider  several 
things  briefly. 

1.  The  cost  of  transporting  wheat  to  England 
from  these  great  markets  abroad.  M'Culloch  esti- 
mates that  10s.  will  cover  all  the  expense  of  deliver- 
ing wheat  from  Dantzic,  Amsterdam,  Hamburgh 
and  the  United  States,  in  London,  and  from  16s.  to 
19s. — say  17s.  &d. — from  Odessa.  The  average 
cost  of  the  transportation  then  of  foreign  wheat 
to  London,  is  11s.  W%d.  The  following  is  the 
result. 

s.    d. 

Average  price  of  Wheat  in  London,  per  quarter,  )    /.,     Q 
for  10  years,  ending  1831,   -        -         -         -  $    01 

Average  price  of  Continental  and  Amer- )  no*    3/7 
ican  Wheat  during  the  same  period  J       ' 

Cost  of  Importing  to  London    -        -      11    10 J 

Total  Cost  in  London 41     1J 

Extract  this  from  the  price  of  London  Wheat,  ?    on    71 
and  it  leaves  a  balance  of    -        -         -         -  J  * 

It  follows  then  that  every  quarter  of  wheat 
consumed  in  England,  for  ten  years  ending  1831, 
cost  20s.  7\d.  more  than  it  otherwise  would,  solely 
in  consequence  of  the  exclusion  of  foreign  grain, 
by  the  corn  laws  !  ! 

18* 


210   SHORT  REPLY  TO  "THE  FAME  AND 

2.  The  next  important  inquiry  is  this — how 
does  foreign  wheat  compare  in  quality,  and  con- 
sequently in  value  with  English  wheat ;  M'Culloch 
is  still  our  authority.  By  reference  to  his  Com. 
Die.  vol.  1.  p.  504,  will  be  found  a  table  of  the 
current  prices  of  English  and  Foreign  wheat, 
in  London  the  7th  Oct.  1833;  and  by  striking 
the  averages,  it  will  be  seen  Foreign  wheat  of  all 
descriptions  from  fifteen  continental  ports,  aver- 
aged 4c£.  more  a  quarter,  than  the  average  price 
of  all  descriptions  of  British  wheat. — This  then 
settles  the  question  about  the  comparative  value 
of  Foreign  and  English  wheat.  If  Foreign 
wheat  commands  a  higher  price  in  London  than 
English  wheat,  it  is  better.  But  the  difference  is 
trifling.  Only  it  should  be  remarked,  that  at  the 
time  this  table  was  made  out  there  was  no  Ameri- 
can wheat  in  market,  which  would  have  made 
the  average  price  of  Foreign  wheat  greater  ;  for  it 
is  generally  conceded  that  American  wheat  is 
superior  to  the  best  English,  and  indeed  better 
than  that  of  almost  any  other  nation. 

Now  by  ascertaining  the  amount  of  wheat 
annually  consumed  in  the  United  Kingdom,  we 
shall  ascertain  the  tax  which  the  landlords  of 
England  have  laid  upon  the  people,  for  the  single 
article  of  wheat.  "  Libertas"  estimates  the  wheat 
annually  consumed  at  30,000,000  quarters,  and 
the  estimate  is  probably  correct.  Conclusion. 

Tax  upon  one  quarter  of  wheat  by  Corn  Laws,  20s.  T\d. 
Tax  upon  30,000,000  quarters    -  -        £30,906,250 


GLORY    OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       211 

We  have  then  proved  from  M'Culloch's  statistics 
that  the  prodigious  sum  of  £30,690,250  sterling 
is  paid  for  their  wheat  every  year  by  the 
British  people,  more  than  they  would  be  obliged 
to  pay  if  it  were  not  for  the  infamous  com 
laws  ! 

But  we  have  not  yet  seen  how  tremendous  is 
the  bread-tax  in  England  ;  for  we  have  yet  only 
estimated  the  effect  of  the  corn  laws  in  raising  the 
price  of  wheat.  But  it  should  be  remembered 
that  these  wicked  laws  extend  to  all  grains,  and 
raise  the  price  of  every  thing  that  can  be  made 
into  bread,  in  the  same  proportion  as  they  raise 
the  price  of  Wheat,  Barley,  Rye,  Oats,  Indian- 
Corn,  Beans,  Peas,  Potatoes  &c.,  all  are  required 
to  pay  heavy  duties. — M'Culloch,  Sidney  Smith, 
Dr.  Bowring,  and  indeed  all  others  whose  opin- 
ions I  am  familiar  with,  suppose  that  all  other 
grains,  (except  wheat,)  consumed  in  Britain, 
amount  in  value  to  about  as  much  as  the  entire 
quantity  of  wheat.  From  M'Culloch's  tables,  it 
appears  that  these  grains  are  all  as  much  cheaper 
abroad  compared  with  their  price  in  England,  as 
wheat  is,  and  hence  it  follows  conclusively  that 
the  increased  price  they  bear  in  England  solely  in 
consequence  of  the  corn  laws,  brings  an  additional 
tax  half  as  great  as  is  imposed  upon  wheat  ! 

I  have  gone  to  M'Culloch,  and  made  good 
my  words.  In  my  first  work,  I  said  the  bread 
tax  was  $300,000,000  a  year.  I  proved  it 
at  the  time  by  good  authorities.  I  have  now 


212       SHORT    REPLY    TO    "  THE    FAME    AND 

demonstrated  it  from  M'Culloch.  But  I  have 
not  yet  done  with  this  argument.  M'Culloch 
says  that  if  it  were  not  for  the  corn  laws,  which 
close  British  ports  against  foreign  grain,  it  could 
be  imported  into  England  even  at  a  lower  rate 
than  I  have  estimated.  He  says,  "Hitherto 
owing  to  the  fluctuating  and  capricious  nature  of 
our  demand  (for  foreign  grain,)  it  has  proved  of 
little  advantage  to  the  (foreign)  cultivator,  and  but 
little  corn  has  been  raised  in  the  expectation  of 
finding  its  way  to  England.  But  it  would  be 
quite  another  thing  were  our  ports  always  open. 
The  supply  of  the  English  markets  would  then 
be  an  object  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the 
Polish  agriculturists,  who,  there  can  be  no  doubt, 
would  both  extend  and  improve  their  tillage." 
Every  man  must  see  the  force  of  this  argument, 
unless  "Libertas"  prove  an  exception. 

But  even  M'Culloch  entirely  overlooks  another 
important  consideration  connected  most  intimate- 
ly with  the  subject.  His  calculations  are  made 
on  the  supposition  that  this  foreign  grain  would  be 
purchased  with  gold  and  silver,  whereas  if  the 
English  ports  were  always  open,  it  would  be  es- 
sentially a  barter-trade,  and  the  profit  upon  the 
English  goods  exchanged  for  corn  would  un- 
questionably cover  the  entire  expense  of  trans- 
porting it  to  England  from  any  part  of  Europe  or 
America  ;  so  that,  any  amount  of  foreign  grain  re- 
quired could  be  delivered  in  London  for  the  same 
price  it  bore  in  the  market  where  it  was  purchas- 


GLORY    OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       213 

ed.  And  another  grand  result  would  be  experi- 
enced in  England  in  consequence.  Millions  of 
operatives  and  labourers,  who  are  now  starving 
because  they  are  idle,  and  idle  because  the  manu- 
facturers cannot  employ  them ; — for  other  na- 
tions have  declared  over  and  over  again,  that 
they  cannot  purchase  English  goods  because 
England  will  not  take  corn  in  exchange, — would 
then  find  a  market  for  their  labour,  and  with  its 
avails  could  satisfy  their  hunger,  and  provide 
themselves  the  necessaries  of  life.  That  deep 
commercial  gloom  which  has  settled  like  a  death- 
pall  upon  England,  and  prostrated  her  manufac- 
tures, and  which  is  to  be  chiefly  attributed  to  the 
baleful  effects  of  the  restrictive  and  protective 
system,  would  all  be  chased  away  by  the  beams 
of  returning  prosperity. 
If  then  all  these  considerations  should  be  brought 

O 

into  the  estimate,  no  doubt  could  possibly  remain 
in  the  mind  of  a  man  who  can  weigh  such  argu- 
ments, that  the  awful  burden  of  MORE  THAN 

THREE  HUNDRED  MILLIONS  OF  DOLLARS  is  bome 

by  the  British  people  as  an  annual  tax  to  aug- 
ment the  overgrown  wealth  of  the  landholders. 
Thus  are  the  interests  of  the  nation  sacrificed  to 
the  avarice  of  30,000  selfish  men.  God  alone  can 
tell  how  many  tears  have  flowed,  and  how  many 
pangs  of  hunger  been  endured  to  uphold  this 
murderous  system !  And  when  to  this  gigantic 
tax  are  added  the  enormous  duties  levied  by  the 
government  upon  sugar,  tea,  coffee,  meat  of  every 


214   SHORT  REPLY  TO  "THE  FAME  AND 

description,  and  indeed  all  the  necessaries  of 
life,  which  have  been  referred  to  in  the  preced- 
ing chapter,  the  picture  will  appear  still  more  ap- 
palling. 

I  have  thus  gone  somewhat  minutely  into  this 
question,  to  afford  an  illustration  of  the  shallow 
and  base  deception  this  Tory  partizan  has  at- 
tempted to  play  off  upon  an  intelligent  people. 
And  in  his  remarks  on  the  Corn  Laws,  we  have 
a  fair  sample  of  his  arguments  and  statistics  all 
through  his  book.  Well  may  Englishmen  ex- 
claim, "  From  all  such  Vindicators  of  our  Fame, 
1  Good  Lord,  deliver  us.' " 

Who  will  doubt  either  his  integrity  or  his  ac- 
curacy in  other  matters,  when  he  has  made  only 
the  slight  miscalculation  of  two  hundred  and  sev- 
enty-seven 'millions  of  dollars  a  year>  on  the 
single  article  of  a  bread  tax  ? 

I  now  turn  to  one  of  his  calculations  which  is 
relieved  from  the  sadness  of  these  reflexions  about 
a  starving  people,  and  has  therefore  afforded  me 
some  amusement.  In  hunting  up  the  items 
which  constitute  "  the  heavy  burdens  of  the 
working  man  in  America,"  he  has  stumbled  upon 
one  which  has,  at  least,  the  charm  of  novelty.  He 
says  "  the  price  of  coals  is  from  double  to  five 
times  greater  in  the  United  States  than  in  Great 
Britain,"  and  that  "  the  price  of  coals  seriously  af- 
fects the  working  classes"  among  us,  and  some- 
thing more  wonderful  still,  "  coal  is  indispensable 
for  every  family." 


GLORY    OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       215 

Is  it  possible  that  the  author  may  have  written 
his  book  in  England,  and  published  it  before  he 
had  been  in  this  country  long  enough  to  know, 
that  not  one  family  in  the  United  States  in  an 
hundred,  ever  use  coal  ?  Has  he  never  heard 
that  in  America  hundreds  of  millions  of  cords  of 
wood  are  every  year  burnt  up  to  get  rid  of  it  ? 
That  fuel,  so  far  from  being  a  tax  upon  the  people, 
is  one  great  source  of  their  wealth  ?  Has  no  one 
ever  told  him  that  in  over  three  quarters  of  the 
territory  embraced  in  the  Union,  men  may  have 
their  wood  for  nothing,  if  they  will  clear  it  from 
the  land  ? 

Does  he  not  know  that  the  chief  consumption 
of  coal  in  the  United  States  is  by  steam  engines 
and  manufactories,  and  that  only  a  small  propor- 
tion of  even  these  use  it  ?  That  no  amount  of 
restriction  upon  coal  can  possibly  affect  any  por- 
tion of  the  community,  except  comparatively  a 
few  families  in  the  large  cities  ?  That  there  are 
30  tons  of  coal  consumed  in  England  where  there 
is  one  consumed  in  the  United  States  ?  Above 
all,  since  he  speaks  of  its  being  "  from  double  to 
five  times  as  dear  in  America  as  in  England," 
did  he  never  learn  that  the  average  retail  price 
of  Lehi  coal  (the  best)  from  1828  (when  the  en- 
tire consumption  of  Anthracite  coal  in  the  United 
States  was  only  77,516  tons)  to  1838,  delivered  in 
Philadelphia,  was  only  $>6  66  per  ton  of  2240 
Ibs.  ?  and  this  too  in  an  unbroken  state.  And 
does  he  not  know  that  the  wholesale  price  of  coal 


216   SHORT  REPLY  TO  "  THE  FAME  AND 

furnished  to  the  Greenwich  Hospital  in  London 
for  thirty  years,  from  1835  to  1838,  (which  is  the 
latest  estimate  M'Colloch  gives)  was  $9  31  a  ton, 
or  two  dollars  and  sixty-Jive  cents  a  ton  dearer 
than  the  price  of  the  same  article  in  Philadelphia  ! 
(See  Com.  Die.  vol.  1.  p.  336— vol.  2.  p.  352,  Amer. 
Ed.)  I  know  that  in  most  parts  of  Great  Britain 
coal  is  somewhat  cheaper  now  than  it  is  in  the 
United  States,  chiefly  in  consequence  of  the  slave 
colliers  working  with  their  wives  and  children  in 
the  terrible  gloom  of  the  coal  mines  for  the  wages  of 
serfs  ;  and  also  because  a  part  of  the  heavy  duties 
formerly  imposed  upon  it,  have  been  removed.  But 
it  is  still  taxed,  and  the  suffering  weaver  of  Spital- 
fields,  who  is  unable  to  take  advantage  of  the 
market,  or  purchase  in  large  quantities,  even  now 
pays  more  for  coal  than  the  poor  man  of  New- York. 
The  hand-loom  Commission  state,  that  in  the 
winter  of  1838,  the  silk  weavers  of  Spitalfields 
paid  2s.  2d.,  or  53  cents  per  cwt.  for  coals, 
or  $11  97  per  ton  !  Say  the  Commission,  "  The 
distress  which  thence  ensued,  at  a  time  when  the 
thermometer  fell  to  zero,  and  three-fourths  of  the 
looms  were  idle,  it  would  be  impossible  to  de- 
scribe !  A  woman,  the  wife  of  a  silk  weaver, 
relating  the  sufferings  of  her  family,  said  to  me, 
'  often,  Sir,  and  often,  were  we  obliged,  when  half 
starving,  to  go  without  a  pennyworth  of  bread, 
and  buy  a  pennyworth  of  coals,  or  take  the  chil- 
dren over  to  the  neighbours  to  borrow  a  warm  at 
their  fire,  or  put  them  early  to  bed  shivering  and 


GLORY    OP    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       217 

crying  \vith  cold.' "  (See  Westminster  Rev.  for 
July,  1841.) 

But  how  would  the  great  body  of  the  American 
people  suifer  even  if  coal  were  dear,  so  long  as 
they  use  wood  for  their  fuel,  and  not  coal.  Not 
one  man  in  a  hundred  makes  any  use  of  coal,  or 
will  for  a  long  time  to  come.  Millions  of  acres 
of  forests  are  yet  to  be  felled  before  wood  can  be 
expensive,  except  in  some  small  portions  of  the 
Eastern  States.  And  yet  this  writer  boldly  de- 
clares that  the  average  coal  tax  upon  the  Ameri- 
can labourer  is  $2  40  a  year.  This  is  almost  as 
near  the  truth  as  his  corn  law  statistics.  Since  it 
happens  that  this  tax  on  coal,  which  at  $2  40  to 
each  working  person  and  his  family  of  four,  in- 
cluding himself,  would  amount  to  only  about 
twice  as  much  as  all  the  coal  consumed  in  the 
United  States  sells  for !  (See  Com.  Die.  article 
coal.) 

This  coal  calculation  is  on  a  par  with  his  next 
estimate,  that  the "  United  States  lose  $40,000- 
000  every  year  by  manufacturing'  their  goods 
instead  of  importing  them" — and  M'Culloch 
agrees  with  him,  he  tells  us.  If  so,  how  does  he 
reconcile  it  with  his  declarations  so  often  made, 
that  the  immense  increase  of  the  wealth  of  Eng- 
land within  the  last  fifty  years,  is  attributable 
chiefly  to  the  unparalleled  growth  of  her  manu- 
factures. It  is  rather  inexplicable  to  my  mind,  I 
confess,  that  England  should  double  her  wealth  in 
half  a  century  by  her  manufactories,  and  the 
VOL.  i.  19 


218   SHORT  REPLY  TO  "  THE  FAME  AND 

United  States  lose  forty  millions  a  year  by  the  same 
process  !  This  country  is  the  wrong  place  for  him 
to  try  to  make  such  political  economy  as  this  popu- 
lar, while  we  are  suffering  a  commercial  prostra- 
tion, brought  upon  us  by  an  extravagant  prodigal- 
ity, which  has  within  the  last  six  years  contracted 
a  debt  of  several  hundred  million  dollars  in 
Europe — by  which  we  have  for  some  time  to  come 
secured  to  ourselves  the  mortification  of  losing  our 
credit  abroad,  and  securing  the  distress  we  feel  at- 
home.  And  yet  at  such  a  crisis  he  proclaims  the 
following  doctrine  in  our  ears.  "  It  has  been  cus- 
tomary to  call  a  balance  of  imports  beyond  exports 
an  unfavourable  balance  ;  but  modern  principles 
of  political  economy  have  shown  that  the  reverse 
is  the  correct  deduction.  We  know  that  every 
merchant  thinks  so.  We  should  consider  that 
man  in  an  unsound  state  of  mind  who  should  boast 
that  his  trade  had  been  this  year  most  prosperous, 
for  he  had  actually  sold  $500,000  worth  and  re- 
ceived $400,000  in  exchange.  If  any  man  was  to 
make  this  statement  in  company,  would  he  get  a 
single  individual  to  join  him  in  his  self-gratifica- 
tion ?  Certainly  not.  And  what  is  beneficial  to 
individuals  is  beneficial  to  the  whole  community." 
This  is  another  striking  specimen  of  our  authors 
mode  of  reasoning.  Does  he  not  know  that  it  is 
bad  economy  for  individuals  or  nations  to  run  into 
debt.  That  when  our  imports  exceed  our  exports 
we  do  run  in  debt  ?  That  these  debts  must  be 
paid  or  repudiated  ?  What  has  impoverished 


GLORY    OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       219 

the  United  States,  and  rendered  us  bankrupts 
for  the  time,  but  buying  of  other  nations  more 
than  they  were  willing  to  buy  in  return?  He 
will  not  deny,  that  for  nine  years,  ending  with 
1839,  we  imported  every  year  vastly  more  than 
we  exported,  and  during  the  whole  period  we 
had  contracted  a  debt  of  nearly  $250,000,000. 
Now,  according  to  his  system,  we  should  have 
grown  rich  by  the  process  of  buying  more  than 
we  paid  for — and  rich  too,  in  just  the  propor- 
tion we  involved  ourselves  in  debt  to  Europe. 
But  we  have  at  last  awaked  from  the  dream  of 
extravagance  and  found  ourselves  on  the  verge  of 
ruin.  England  was  anxious  enough  to  sell  us 
her  manufactured  goods,  but  she  would  not  let  us 
pay  for  them  with  the  products  of  our  own  labour. 
She  excluded  our  grain  from  her  ports — she  only 
admitted  our  tobacco  on  condition  of  our  paying 
a  duty  of  over  900  per  cent.  Our  true  policy 
would  have  been  to  purchase  no  more  of  her  than 
she  would  part  with  in  exchange  for  our  own  pro- 
ducts, and  to  have  manufactured  the  balance  at 
home,  which  we  were  fully  able  to  do — thereby 
putting  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  into  the 
hands  of  our  own  labourers,  rather  than  sending 
four  thousand  miles  to  get  the  work  done.  We 
should  then  have  saved  ourselves  the  disastrous 
consequences  which  have  followed — an  enormous 
debt  to  England — loss  of  credit  abroad — and  re- 
pudiation and  prostration  of  manufactures — and 
indeed  every  branch  of  industry,  at  home.  But 


220   SHORT  REPLY  TO  "  THE  FAME  AND 

with  an  inscanity  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  na- 
tions, we  rushed  into  debt  without  bestowing  a 
thought  upon  the  future,  or  making  any  adequate 
provision  for  the  discharge  of  our  obligations. 

But  "  Libertas"  is  the  last  man  who  should 
reproach  Mississippi  for  repudiating  her  State 
Debts.  She  has  acted  upon  the  very  policy  he 
recommended,  and  in  so  doing  has  brought  her- 
self to  her  present  condition  of  poverty  and  hu- 
miliation. She  never  would  have  been  reduced 
to  this  state  of  vassalage  and  dishonour  if  she  had 
incurred  no  greater  obligation  every  year  than  her 
cot tmi  would  have  discharged.  But  she  expended 
more  than  her  income,  and  now  she,  and  indeed 
the  whole  nation,  find  themselves  precisely  in  the 
condition  of  hundreds  of  private  individuals  who 
have  rashly  plunged  into  debt ; — expended  their 
money  faster  than  they  made  it,  and  heaped  up 
obligations  they  could  not  discharge.  When  the 
delusion  passes  away,  and  the  day  of  reckoning 
comes,  the  spend-thrift  prodigal,  confounded  with 
his  extravagance,  and  hopeless  for  the  issue,  applies 
the  sponge  of  repudiation  to  solemn  claims,  and 
turning  on  his  heel,  tells  his  creditors  they  must 
never  trouble  him  about  his  debts  : — he  too  acted 
the  part  of  folly,  while  every  body  else  was  play- 
ing the  fool ; — received  little  or  no  advantage  from 
the  goods  he  purchased,  or  the  money  he  borrow- 
ed, and  now  he  must  take  shelter  under  a  Bank- 
rupt Law,  (which  legalizes  his  fraud)  if  it  is  not 
too  much  trouble,  and  if  it  is,  why,  he  can  get 


GLORY    OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       221 

along  without  it,  (for  there  is  no  more  of  a  cat 
than  her  skin,)  and  he  takes  a  long  breath,  dis- 
misses all  trouble  about  the  past,  turns  over  a  new 
leaf  and  opens  a  cash  account  with  the  world  at 
last; — for  the  best  reason  in  the  world, — he  can  now 
do  business  on  no  other  principles.  All  this  is 
the  result  of  running  in  debt, — of  not  paying  for 
what  is  purchased. 

But  this  is  not  the  greatest  inconsistency  in  this 
argument ;  in  trying  to  support  a  structure  built 
upon  sand,  its  author  is  driven  into  a  greater 
blunder  still.  He  attempts  to  show  that  no  draft 
is  made  upon  us  for  our  specie  to  pay  our  foreign 
debt,  and  that  the  amount  of  gold  and  silver  in 
America,  increased  the  more  our  debt  augmented. 
I  well  know  such  fictions  are  too  feeble  to  stand 
even  against  the  assertion  of  a  merchant's  clerk ; 
but  since  I  have  gone  thus  far  in  exposing  his 
folly  I  will  finish  the  work.  He  says  that  from 
1832  to  1838  while  our  imports  greatly  exceeded 
our  exports,  some  $55,000,000  in  specie,  were 
brought  into  the  country,  more  than  was  carried 
out.  If  it  were  so  what  would  it  prove  ?  Only 
that  our  credit  was  so  good  abroad  during  that 
time,  we  could  get  specie  as  well  as  goods  upon 
credit,  and  Europe  supposing  her  securities  good, 
made  no  demand  on  us  for  specie  in  return  for 
interest  or  principle.  Heavy  loans  negotiated 
abroad,  were  taken  up  in  specie  to  a  large  amount, 
and  of  course  the  gold  and  silver  flowed  into  the 
nation.  But  where  "  Libertas"  got  his  specie  table 
19* 


222      SHORT    REPLY    TO    "  THE    FAME    AND 

I  cannot  say.  Mr.  Woodbury  in  his  report  to 
Congress,  Feb.  11,  1841,  makes  a  widely  differ- 
ent estimate,  and  he  may  without  much  stretch 
of  fancy,  be  supposed  to  know  as  much  about  the 
matter,  as  an  anonymous  writer,  whose  frequent 
falsifications  have  already  been  abundantly  proved 
upon  him. 

But  no  sooner  did  England  become  alarmed  for 
the  security  of  her  claims  against  us  than  the  tide 
of  gold  turned,  and  according  to  his  own  table,  one 
single  year  made  a  difference  of  seventeen  and  a 
half  million  dollars  ; — for  in  1838,  we  imported 
$14,239,070,  in  specie,  more  than  we  exported, 
and  in  1839  we  exported  $3,201,180  more  than 
we  imported.  The  next  year  this  sum  increased 
to  Jive  millions,  in  1841  it  swelled  to  a  greater 
amount  still,  and  it  is  the  opinion  of  several  dis- 
tinguished financiers  of  the  country,  that  during 
the  present  year  it  will  be  much  larger  than  it  has 
ever  been  !  Besides  if  the  interest  and  principal  of 
the  state  debts  now  due  had  not  been  repudiated, 
it  would  all  have  been  paid  in  specie,  for  our 
paper  currency  will  hardly  pass  current  in  sight 
of  the  banks  from  which  it  is  issued,  much  less 
pay  debts  in  Europe  :  and  "  Libertas"  confesses, 
that,  although  during  1839 — 40  and  41,  the  re- 
vulsion of  which  I  speak  not  only  stopped  the 
flow  of  over  $14,000,000  of  specie  to  the  United 
States  every  year,  but  positively  took  away  about 
$15,000,000,  making  a  difference  between  the 
amount  now  in  the  country,  and  what  it  would 


GLORY    OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       223 

have  been,  had  no  unfavourable  change  taken 
place, of  over  $57.000,000  in  three  years;  yet  he 
does  not  deny  that  the  sum  would  have  been  still 
larger  had  it  not  been  for  the  large  sale  of  our 
public  stocks  in  the  European  Markets  ! 

"  Libertas"  knows  better  than  myself  the  mo- 
tive which  prompted  him  to  put  forth  such  a  de- 
lusive calculation.  He  says  we  shall  get  no 
more  credit  in  England  till  our  debts  are  paid. 
Right !  and  would  to  God,  we  had  never  had 
any  of  this  credit  there  at  all.  Then  should  we 
have  saved  our  capital  which  has  gone,  or  will  go 
to  England  to  pay  for  what  we  ought  to  have 
manufactured  at  home  (for  these  debts  and  Bonds 
will  be  paid  to  the  last  dollar,)  and  England  find- 
ing she  could  not  sell  us  from  $50,000,000  to 
$75,000,000  worth  of  her  manufactures  every 
year,  would  have  been  obliged  before  now  to  do 
away  in  part,  at  least,  with  her  unjust,  unrecipro- 
cal  and  selfish,  restrictive,  and  prohibitory  policy. 

Many,  probably  most  of  my  readers,  never  saw  or 
heard  of  the  book  here  reviewed,  and  I  trust  refuted. 
It  will  enable  such  to  judge  more  correctly  of  its 
author's  qualifications  to  become  a  critic  of  Repub- 
lican Institutions,  when  I  tell  them  he  enters  at 
great  length,  and  with  much  zeal,  into  a  defence  of 
the  Union  of  Church  and  State  in  England,  and  la- 
ments over  the  misfortune  of  America  in  not  being 
blessed  with  such  an  establishment ;  this  accounts 
satisfactorily  for  his  impugning  the  character  and 
motives  of  such  a  man  as  John  Thorogood,  who 


224   SHORT  REPLY  TO  "THE  FAME  AND 

was  shut  up  in  a  filthy  jail  in  England  two  years 
by  the  "  minister  of  Jesus,"  (?)  for  the  non-pay- 
ment of  a  5s.  Gd.  Church  Rate  !  His  attack  upon 
Mr.  Thorogood  was  too  base  and  intolerable  to  be 
swallowed  by  his  own  greatest  friend  and  flatterer. 
The  editor  of  The  Scottish  Journal,  a  man 
who  seems  to  possess  a  spirit  akin  to  that  of  "  Li- 
bertas"  himself,  and  who  has  established  a  press 
in  New  York  through  which  to  pour  out  his  Bri- 
tish hatred  upon  American  Institutions,  even  he, 
thoroughly  saturated  as  he  is  with  the  monarchi- 
cal spirit,  could  not  pass  his  contemptible  libel 
upon  John  Thorogood  without  rebuke.  He  com- 
plains of  "  the  harsh  party-sided  view  which  the 
author  has  taken  of  certain  questions  of  English 
politics,  and  for  the  introducing  of  which  he  has 
not  the  shadow  of  an  excuse.  Such  is  the  Church 
Rate  question.  John  Thorogood,  who  lay  in  a 
damp  jail,  swarming  with  rats  for  nineteen  months 
because  he  asserted  the  birth-right  of  every  free- 
man to  think  for  himself  in  matters  of  religion, 
and  acting  upon  that  belief,  refused  to  pay  an 
odious,  oppressive,  and  unjust  tax  for  the  support 
of  the  bellows-blowers,  organ-grinders,  and  bell- 
ringers  of  the  Established  Church,  *  *  *  has 
the  farther  misfortune  to  be  the  object  of  an  extra 
quantity  of  very  illiberal  condemnation  from  '  Li- 
bertas,'  and  the  latter  has  put  himself  in  a  very 
unfortunate  position  in  consequence.  '  Let  us 
see,'  Libertas  says, '  John  Thorogood,  it  seems,  is 
a  dissenter  from  the  Church  of  England,  and  we 


GLORY    OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."        225 

hope  a  sincere  believer  in  Christianity,'  ('what  ne- 
cessity for  this  sneer,'  says  the  editor.)  '  How  his 
conscience  can  be  hurt  by  a  small  payment  for 
supporting  a  Church  teaching  essentially  the 
very  same  doctrines  which  his  own  church 
teaches,  we  cannot  explain.'  '  Libertas'  must  be 
very  unfit  to  grapple  with  his  subject,  if  he  ven- 
ture to  say  that  Episcopalianism  and  Indepen- 
dent principles  have  much  in  common.  Upon 
Libertas's  reasoning  the  Presbyterians  of  Scot- 
land, and  the  Wickliffites  of  England,  instead  of 
being  glorious  martyrs,  must  have  their  own 
blood  upon  their  heads,  as  the  doctrines  for  which 
they  contended  were  not  more  essentially  different. 
The  smallness  of  the  sum  is  nothing :  trifling,  in- 
deed, was  the  ship-money  which  Hampden  refus- 
ed to  pay ;  from  that  refusal  England  dates  her 
glorious  Revolution.  '  Libertas'  is  very  unhappy 
in  his  Quaker  illustration,  saying  that  '  they  quiet- 
ly pay  their  taxes,'  for  from  the  days  of  William 
Penn,  no  English  Quaker  has  paid  Church 
Rates.  We  conclude  by  informing  '  Libertas'  that 
John  Thorogood  was  NOT  '  pleased  to  walk  him- 
self out  of  jail,'  as  he  expresses  it ;  the  debt,  5s.  6d. 
and  costs,  £121  10s.,  were  paid  by  an  unknown 
hand,  through  a  London  solicitor  of  eminence, 
(known  to  be  solicitor  to  the  Dukes  of  Bedford 
and  Buckingham  among  others.)  And  John 
Thorogood  never  has  known  who  paid  them." 
Thus  much  for  the  estimation  in  which  "  Liber- 
tas" is  held  by  his  own  friends. 


226   SHORT  REPLY  TO  "  THE  FAME  AND 

He  has  probably  let  fall  no  remark  more  cha- 
racteristic of  his  principles  than  that  he  "  cannot 
explain  how,  it  could  hurt  John  Thorogoods  con- 
science to  pay  a  church-rate."  I  presume  he  did 
find  a  difficulty  in  understanding  how  any  man, 
could  have  so  tender  a  conscience :  a  thing  which, 
if  his  book  is  a  fair  sample,  he  is  never  troubled 
with. 

One  other  item  shall  close  what  I  have  to  say, 
on  the  statistics  of  this  book,  "  We  may  fairly 
state  without  fear  of  challenge,  that  the  taxes  paid 
by  a  working  man  in  England  do  not  exceed  four 
to  eleven  per  cent,  on  his  income."  Probably  Sir 
E.  L.  Bulwer  has  had  as  good  an  opportunity  of 
understanding  this  matter  as  "  Libertas."  He  says, 
"  By  indisputable  calculation  it  can  be  shown 
that  every  working  man  is  now  taxed  to  the  amount 

Of  ONE  THIRD  OF  HIS  WEEKLY  WAGES."  (Eng- 
land and  the  English,  vol.  1st.  p.  116.)  Quite  a 
difference  between  four  and  thirty-three  and  one- 
third  per  cent,  when  it  comes  out  of  a  hungry 
man's  pocket ;  but  still  no  great  mistake  for  "  Li- 
bertas." 

Mr.  Villiers,  in  speaking  on  this  subject  in  Par- 
liament last  spring,  said,  "  He  believed  he  could 
not  do  better  than  call  the  attention  of  the  com- 
mittee to  the  petition  of  a  labouring  man,  by  name 
William  Gladstone,  which  set  forth  the  share  of 
taxation  he  bore  with  reference  to  the  wages  he 
received.  He  used,  he  said,  one  ounce  of  tea,  two 
ounces  of  coffee,  eight  ounces  of  sugar,  eight 


GLORY    OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       227 

ounces  of  meat,  eight  lb.  of  flour,  seven  pints  of 
ale,  and  a  quarter  of  a  pint  of  brandy  per  week  ; 
the  cost  of  which  articles,  free  from  excise  and 
customs'  duties,  was  two  shillings  and  four-three- 
fourths,  but  with  those  taxes  seven  shillings  and 
seven  pence,  being  a  weekly  tax  of  five  shillings 
and  two  pence,  or  yearly  of  thirteen  pounds,  thir- 
teen shillings  and  six  pence,  while  his  wages 
amounted  to  only  eleven  shillings.  These  were 
articles  almost  of  necessary  consumption  to  the  la- 
bouring man." 

After  making  an  assertion,  which  probably  no 
other  man  living  ever  made, — that  the  labouring 
man  in  this  country  is  more  heavily  taxed  than  in 
England,  "  Libertas"  resorts  to  a  statistical  table 
to  prove  it.  Finding  it  a  difficult  matter,  and  yet 
starting  as  he  did,  with  the  determination  it  should 
so  appear  by  his  statistics,  he  estimates  the  tax 
upon  each  individual,  (working  man)  in  conse- 
quence of  the  tariff,  at  twelve  dollars  and  fifty 
cents  ;  that  would  be  $56,000,000  per  annum  for 
the  whole  country,  taking  his  estimate  of  four 
persons  to  a  family,  which  is  only  two  or  three 
times  as  much  as  the  whole  revenue  of  the  coun- 
try from  the  tariff.  Then  comes  the  coal  tax 
of  two  dollars  and  forty  cents,  which  I  have 
proved  existed  only  in  his  own  brain.  And  these 
two  fictitious  sums  only  amount  to  one  half  the 
aggregate  he  wishes  to  make  out.  But  with  un- 
daunted resolution,  he  leaps  the  grand  conclusion, 
and  adds  fifteen  dollars  and  forty  cents  as  the  an- 


228      SHORT    REPLY    TO    "THE    FAME    AND 

nual  average  loss  of  every  working  man  in  the 
United  States  on  bad  bills  ;  or  $60,000,000  a  year, 
as  the  aggregate  loss  to  the  country,  allowing  four 
persons  to  a  family  ;  or  over  six  hundred  millions 
of  dollars  in  ten  years.  This  happens  to  amount 
to  about  four  times  as  much  as  all  the  bank  cir- 
culation in  the  United  States  in  1836,  when  it  was 
larger  than  it  had  ever  been  before,  or  than  it  has 
ever  been  since  :  (See  Com.  Die.  article  Banks) — 
and  nearly  twice  as  much  as  all  the  banking  ca- 
pital of  the  United  States  ever  amounted  to  since 
the  organization  of  the  government !  This  is 
financiering  with  a  vengeance  ! 

Our  author's  bill  of  taxes  on  the  American 
working  man,  reminds  me  of  the  story  told  of 
Joseph  Buonaparte  and  his  Yankee  landlord.  It 
happened  some  years  ago,  while  the  ex-king  of 
Spain  was  travelling  with  his  suite,  through  one 
of  the  New-England  states,  he  passed  a  night  at  a 
country  inn.  The  ingenious  host  considering 
such  a  guest  no  ordinary  windfall,  determined  at 
once  to  make  a  speculation,  and  so  the  next  morn- 
ing after  puzzling  his  brain  all  night  about  the 
best  manner  of  presenting  the  bill,  at  last  he  came 
to  the  conclusion  not  to  be  very  minute  in  his 
items,  and  he  boldly  wrote  down  $100.  When 
the  bill  was  presented,  the  servant  considering  it 
an  unusual  charge,  thought  he  would  hand  it  to 
his  master  for  settlement.  The  landlord  was  call- 
ed in,  whom  the  whilome  king  thus  addressed : 
"  Dis  is  a  remarkable  bill,  Monsieur — one  hundred 


GLORY    OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       229 

dollar  for  one  night !  Mon  Dieu — please  make 
out  de  particulars."  The  host  nothing  abashed, 
withdrew  to  accomplish  the  work.  He  made  out 
all  the  items  he  could  either  remember  or  invent ; 
many  of  them  imaginary,  and  all  extravagant  ] 
but  still  he  could  not  with  all  his  yankee  inven- 
tion, make  them  amount  to  more  than  fifty  dol- 
lars. But  a  hundred  dollars  he  must  have ;  so 
he  made  up  the  deficit  by  one  grand  coup-de-main. 
And  it  ran  thus  :  • 

JOSEPH   BUONAPARTE,  ESQ., 

Dr.  To  JONATHAN  OCTWITYOU. 


For  the  above  items  already  enumerated      -    $50    00 
For  making  suck  a  fuss  generally,    -        -    -       50    00 


Total,    -      -    -    $100    00 

Received  payment, 

Jonathan  Outwityou. 

The  bill  of  a  working  man's  taxes  in  America, 
as  figured  out  by  "  Libertas,"  is  equally  reasona- 
ble, and  his  "loss  on  bills"  is  the  "fuss  generally" 
that  helps  him  out  of  the  scrape. 

III.  The  last  point  to  be  proved  against  the 
author  of  this  book,  is,  THAT  HE  HAS  NO  REGARD 

FOR  THE    TRUTH  WHEN    IT  COMES  IN  COLLISION 

WITH  HIS  PASSIONS. — His  false  assertions,  peurile 
statistics,  and  laughable  blunders,  I  can  often  at- 
tribute to  other  motives  than  the  desire  to  utter 
VOL.  i.  20 


230   SHORT  REPLY  TO  "  THE  FAME  AND 

falsehoods.  I  know  that  national  prejudice,  the 
violence  of  passions,  and  great  credulity,  may  cause 
even  a  sincere  man  to  err  widely  from  the  truth. 
Over  all  these,  which  he  seems  to  possess  in  no 
ordinary  degree,  I  can  throw  the  mantle  of  charity. 
But  when  he  indulges  in  the  bold  assertions,  that 
"  the  amount  of  common  education  given  in  Eng- 
land greatly  exceeds  that  of  America" — that  the 
working  man  in  the  United  States  has  heavier  bur- 
dens to  bear,  and  enjoys  fewer  ef  the  comforts  of 
life  than  the  labouring  man  of  England — that  the 
"  Voluntary  schools  provided  education  for  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  of  England,  till  within 
the  last  century — that  there  is  no  oppression  of 
the  poor  in  Great  Britain,  $*c.,"  I  cannot  believe 
he  designed  or  desired  to  tell  the  truth.  Under 
the  violence  of  passion,  he  has  descended  to  the 
meanness  of  what  cannot  be  other  than  conscious 
and  intentional  falsehood.  With  many  other  ma- 
licious and  libellous  charges  against  myself  and 
my  country,  I  pass  over  his  aspersion  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Connecticut,  of  whom  he  says  :  "  To  talk 
of  such  men  knowing  anything  of  the  meaning  of 
liberty,  is  to  make  a  mockery  of  that  cherished 
word."  When  an  attack  worth  noticing  is  made 
against  that  people  they  will  answer  it  themselves. 
And  in  reply  to  his  still  viler  aspersion  of  Massa- 
chusetts, I  will  only  quote  the  words  of  her  great 
orator  :  "  Mr.  President,  I  shall  enter  on  no  enco- 
mium upon  Massachusetts.  She  needs  none. 
There  she  is,  go  and  behold  her  for  yourselves. 


GLORY    OF    ENGLAND    VINDICATED."       231 

There  is  her  history — the  world  knows  it  by 
heart." 

In  my  letter  to  Mr.  Greely,  when  this  book 
first  appeared,  I  said  that  in  my  reply  to  it  I  would 
make  the  author's  charges  recoil  upon  his  own 
head.  The  public  will  judge  whether  I  have  re- 
deemed my  pledge.  From  such  a  man  I  had  no 
reason  to  expect  the  courtesy  of  a  gentleman,  al- 
though I  might  hope  to  escape  the  brutality  of  the 
blackguard. 


BOOK  THE  FIFTH. 


SOME  GLANCES  AT  THE  SUFFERING 
AND  CRIME,  THE  IGNORANCE  AND 
DEGRADATION,  CAUSED  BY  THE  OP- 
PRESSIVE BURDENS  LAID  UPON  THE 
BRITISH  PEOPLE. 

Glorious  days  for  the  Church !  and  such  displays  well  worthy 
the  followers  of  the  meek  and  lowly  Jesus !  Services  of  gold  for 
idle,  port-bibbing,  over-fed  churchmen,  when  thousands — nay, 
millions  of  families  are  wanting  bread  !  There  must  be  an  end 
to  all  this  by-and-by ;  the  people's  eyes  are  beginning  to  open, 
and  thek  lips  to  be  unsealed. — London  Satirist  March,  1842. 

We  have  offended,  oh  !  my  countrymen  ! 

We  have  offended  very  grievously, 

And  been  most  tyrannous.     From  East  to  West, 

A  groan  of  accusation  pierces  heaven  ; 

The  wretched  plead  against  us,  multitudes  ! 

bartering  freedom  and  the  poor  man's  life 

For  gold  as  in  a  market ! — Coleridge. 

A  man  willing  to  work,  and  unable  to  find  work,  is  perhaps  the 
saddest  sight  Fortune's  unequality .  exhibits  under  the  sun. — 

Carlyle. 

STATE  OF  THE  COUNTRY. — On  the  evening  of  Friday  week, 
Sir  James  Graham  announced  in  the  House  of  Commons,  the 
terrible  fact,  that  twelve  hundred  thousand  people  are  at  present 
receiving  parochial  relief  in  England  and  Wales  !  One  in  every 
thirteen  of  the  population  is  on  the  poor  rates,  and  we  may  safely 
assume  that  one  in  every  ten  is  destitute.  This  state  of  distress 
is  unparalleled,  we  do  believe,  in  the  history  of  any  nation  on  the 
face  of  the  earth. — Aberdeen  Herald,  June.  1842. 


BOOK  FIFTH. 


SOME  GLANCES  AT  THE  SUFFERING  AND  CRIME, 
THE  IGNORANCE  AND  DEGRADATION,  CAUSED 
BY  THE  OPPRESSIVE  BURDENS  LAID  UPON 
THE  BRITISH  PEOPLE. 

The  Reader  who  has  gone  with  me  through 
the  previous  chapters,  in  which  I  have  spoken  of 
the  principal  burdens  that  press  upon  the  lower 
classes  in  the  British  Islands,  is  now  prepared  to 
contemplate  the  results  of  all  this  oppression  as 
they  are  developed  in  the  sufferings  of  wronged 
millions.  The  throne  and  aristocracy  have  had 
all  control  over  legislation  for  a  thousand  years, 
and  the  necessary  result  of  this  system  of  things 
has  at  last  been  worked  out, — the  experiment 
which  has  been  in  trial  for  ages,  is  finally  perfect- 
ed,— the  aristocracy  are  princes,  and  the  poor  are 
beggars. 

In  turning  over  a  file  of  London  papers  Last 
summer,  I  saw  two  or  three  facts  on  the  same 


236  SUFFERING    AND    CRIME 

page,  which  will  illustrate  the  subject  upon  which 
we  are  now  entering.  "  A  noble  Lord,"  (the  earl 
of  Scarborough,)  had  taken  his  seat  in  the  House 
of  Peers,  and  voted  before  taking  the  oaths  and 
going  through  the  other  prescribed  and  requisite 
forms.  By  violating  the  laws  of  the  realm,  the 
noble  Lord  had  incurred  numerous  and  severe 
disabilities,  (according  to  the  30th  Charles  II.  Stat. 
2,  Cap.  1.)  It  was  considered  of  course  out  of  the 
question  to  execute  the  law's  penalty  upon  a  noble- 
man ;  and  the  House  of  Peers,  violating  the  stand- 
ing rules  of  that  body,  (that  no  bill  shall  be  read 
twice  in  one  day,)  introduced  a  bill  to  relieve  the 
offending  Earl,  and  passed  it  through  all  its  stages 
into  a  law  the  very  day  it  was  introduced.  Per- 
haps this  was  all  right. 

The  next  item  in  the  column,  was  the  follow- 
ing :  "  A  tradesman  of  Shrewsbury,  travelling  in 
a  taxed  cart,  on  the  Atcham  road,  was  on  Sunday 
charged  a  toll  of  10s.  4rf.  in  passing  through 
Emstrey  gate,  for  having  the  name  of  the  owner 
of  the  cart  affixed  on  the  wrong  side  of  it ! !" 

In  the  Examiner  I  saw  an  account  of  the  trial 
of  Lord  Waldegrave,  in  which  that  nobleman  was 
acquitted,  and  it  was  thought  in  violation  of 
justice,  by  Chief  Justice  Denman.  Immediately 
after  the  same  eminent  Jurist  sentenced  a  poor 
letter-carrier,  who  had  stolen  a  penny  from  a 
letter,  to  transportation  for  life. 

These  facts  illustrate  the  spirit  of  English  law 
and  English  society.  The  poor  letter-carrier  who 


OP    THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE. 

is  now  dragging  out  a  wretched  life  of  slavery  in 
antipodal  Australia,  torn  from  his  wife  and  child- 
ren for  the  crime  of  stealing  a  penny,  to  save,  by 
the  crust  he  bought  with  it,  his  hungry  babes 
from  starvation,  he  could  discourse  somewhat 
eloquently  on  "  the  equal  rights  of  all  British 
subjects  before  the  law." 

I  find  a  case  stated  in  a  Scottish  Journal  of  the 
first  of  June  1842,  which  came  recently  before  a 
magistrate.  It  appeared  that  a  shop-keeper  on 
entering  a  house  in  pursuit  of  a  poor  wretch  who 
had  stolen  a  few  potatoes,  found  in  a  boiling  pot, 
a  portion  of  a  dead  dog  which  the  starving 
family  was  preparing  to  eat  with  the  stolen 
potatoes  !  I  need  not  comment  on  such  a  fact ; 
only  this  much  I  will  say,  that  about  the  same 
time,  and  if  I  remember  right,  the  very  same 
night,  the  halls  of  Victoria's  palace  were  echoing 
the  revelry  of  England's  nobility,  gathered  at  a 
grand  bal  masque,  which  is  said  to  have  eclipsed 
all  the  magnificence  ever  before  seen  at  the  court 
of  St.  James.  To  provide  for  this  brilliant  and 
dazzling  pageant,  "  thousands  of  toil-worn  labour- 
ers that  same  night,  went  hungry  to  their  straw. 
While  the  queen  and  the  lords  and  ladies  of  her 
court  were  squandering  thousands  upon  this  dis- 
play of  useless  magnificence,  the  millions  of  Bri- 
tain whose  sweat  and  groans  had  filled  those 
beaufets  with  plate  of  gold,  and  covered  the  robes 
of  velvet  with  ermine  and  jewels,  were  starving 
in  hovels."  But  says  the  editor  of  the  Freeman's 


238  SUFFERING    AND    CRIME 

Journal,  "  the  pampered  lordling  and  the  silken 
demoiselle  did  not  dance  away  the  woes  of  the 
bed-ridden.  Gilded  masks  did  not  hide  the  grim 
and  wasted  visage  of  squalid  poverty.  Garments 
of  cloth  of  gold,  clusters  of  diamonds  did  not  hide 
the  nakedness  of  the  beggar,  and  in  the  pomp  and 
splendour  of  that  mocking  pageantry,  the  sorrows 
and  cries  of  famished  millions  without,  were 
neither  solaced  nor  hushed." 

What  wonder  that  in  England  a  poor  wretch, 
who  feels  only  the  gnawings  of  hunger,  and  that 
somebody  is  to  blame  for  it  besides  himself,  should, 
in  the  sullen  revenge  of  desperation,  attempt  the 
life  of  the  Queen.  She  may  be  personally  inno- 
cent, but  famine  is  often  blind  in  the  victim  it  se- 
lects for  its  fury.  When  the  Queen  was  first  shot 
at,  in  the  summer  of  1840,  I  was  in  London,  and 
but  a  short  distance  from  the  scene.  In  passing 
to  my  lodgings  late  that  night,  I  met  crowds  of 
houseless,  half  starved  wretches  coming  away  from 
the  fashionable  part  of  the  town,  where  they  had 
gone  with  the  excited  thousands  who  gathered 
around  the  palace.  I  could  not  but  feel  that  this, 
and  even  worse  awaited  an  oppressive  govern- 
ment ;  and  that  there  were  eyes  which  would  yet 
see  the  emaciated  populace  thronging  round  that 
palace  with  other  motives  than  curiosity,  and  bear- 
ing away  other  trophies  than  their  own  tatters. 

I  have  shown,  I  think,  from  authorities  which 
will  not  be  questioned,  that  heavier  burdens  are 
imposed  on  the  British  people  than  on  any  other 


OF  THE  BRITISH  PEOPLE.        239 

nation  in  the  world  ;  and  since  the  great  propor- 
tion of  these  taxes  are  on  the  necessaries  and  com- 
forts of  life,  they  fall  of  course  upon  the  labouring 
classes,  who  constitute  the  vast  majority  of  the 
people.  This  will  illustrate  the  folio  wing  remark 
of  Sidney  Smith,  that  "  There  is  no  doubt,  more 
misery  and  acute  suffering  among  the  mass  of  the 
people  of  England,  than  there  is  in  any  kingdom 
of  the  world.  There  are  thousands,  houseless, 
breadless,  friendless,  without  shelter,  raiment  or 
hope  ;  millions  uneducated,  only  half  fed,  driven 
to  crime  and  every  species  of  vice  which  ignorance 
and  destitution  bring  in  their  train,  to  an  extent 
utterly  unknown  to  the  less  enlightened,  the  less 
free,  the  less  favoured,  and  the  less  powerful  king- 
doms of  Europe ;  but  really  they  are  illiterate, 
and  to  say  the  truth,  are  sometimes  actually  not 
very  civil  when  they  have  wanted  bread  for 
only  two  or  three  days." 

We  now  ask  the  attention  of  the  reader  while 
we  lift  the  veil  from  the  sufferings  and  degrada- 
tion of  the  SLAVE  CLASSES.  And  although  the 
facts  I  shall  state  will  send  a  chill  to  the  heart  of 
every  man  who  feels  any  sympathy  for  the  wrong- 
ed and  the  degraded,  yet  I  trust  the  reader  will 
not  turn  away  from  the  picture  I  shall  draw,  dark 
and  appalling  though  it  be,  until  this  great  lesson 
sinks  deep  into  his  heart, — that  man  cannot  inflict 
injustice  on  his  brother  man  without  high  offence 
against  heaven,  and  misery, — wherever  his  wrong 
doing  is  felt  To  convey  an  idea  of  the  general 


240  SUFFERING    AND    CRIME 

condition  of  England  during  the  last  winter,  I 
make  the  following  extract  from  a  January  num- 
ber of  the  London  Spectator. 

"When  Parliament  assembles  on  3d  February, 
it  will  meet  no  improved  accounts  of  the  state  of 
the  country.  This  week  has  added  another  to  the 
list  of  great  meetings  to  declare  the  advance  of 
embarrassment,  if  not  of  ruin,  among  all  classes 
in  the  manufacturing  districts.  The  whole  West 
Riding  of  Yorkshire  has  just  made  such  a  declara- 
tion. However  tedious  these  reports  may  be  in 
the  detail,  from  their  sameness  and  the  triteness 
of  the  subject,  as  well  as  from  their  gloomy  char- 
acter, they  merit  the  profoundest  attention  as  ema- 
nating from  such  wide  and  important  tracts  of 
country.  District  after  district,  each  comprehend- 
ing great  counties,  has  avowed  itself  unable  to  cope 
with  the  burden  that  oppresses  it.  If  the  reader 
were  to  take  a  blank  map  of  the  United  Kingdom, 
and  to  colour  those  parts  which  have  thus  spoken 
in  one  tint,  say  in  the  appropriate  hue  of  black,  he 
would  find  a  large  portion  of  the  country  clothed 
in  the  shade  of  trouble,  and  that  the  most  wealthy 
portion.  It  comprises  the  iron-district  of  Western 
Scotland,  with  Paisley  and  other  trading  places ; 
the  iron-district  of  Wales ;  Liverpool  and  Man- 
chester, and  the  districts  belonging  to  them  in 
Lancashire  and  North  Cheshire ;  the  West  Riding 
of  Yorkshire  ;  Derby,  Leicester,  Nottingham,  and 
their  surrounding  districts.  The  accounts  from 
this  wide  region  are  all  alike ;  they  represent  such 


OF  THE  BRITISH  PEOPLE.        241 

a  state  of  things  as,  when  it  is  permanent,  is  called 
the  decay  of  nations." 

Such  was  the  condition  of  England  last  winter ; 
and  since  then  the  evil,  so  far  from  being  remedied, 
has  been  continually  augmenting,  until  embarrass- 
ment in  every  branch  of  trade  and  commerce,  and 
distress  among  the  entire  mass  of  the  working 
classes,  have  increased  to  a  most  fearful  extent. 

But  for  distinctness  we  will  take  up  each  class 
of  labourers  by  itself,  and  ascertain  as  nearly  as 
possible  their  real  condition,  the  amount  of  their 
wages,  the  demand  for  their  labour,  and  the  num- 
ber of  hours  they  work.  Finding,  as  we  shall,  a 
great  disproportion  between  their  wants  and  their 
means,  we  shall  be  able  more  correctly  to  learn 
the  amount  of  their  suffering. 

For  convenience  sake  we  shall  divide  the  Lower 
Classes  into  two  great  bodies,  the  Agricultural 
and  the  Commercial.  Under  the  Agricultural 
head,  we  embrace  also  the  slaves  in  the  coal  mines; 
and  under  the  Commercial,  we  shall  include  the 
suffering  population  of  large  towns  in  the  three 
kingdoms. 


AGRICULTURAL  LABOURERS. — Always  choos- 
ing to  substantiate  my  statements  by  English  au- 
thorities, I  shall  open  this  section  with  a  few 
words  from  the  Westminster  Review  for  January, 
1842,  to  do  away  with  the  false  impression  which 
has  been  so  common  in  the  United  States,  and 

VOL.  I.  21 


242  SUFFERING    AND    CRIME 

into  the  belief  of  which,  so  many  Englishmen 
have  been  deluded  ;  that  the  peasantry  of  England 
are  "  the  happiest  peasantry  in  the  world  !"  An 
impression  which  has  no  other  foundation  than 
the  dreams  of  the  poet,  or  the  false  representations 
of  oppressive  landlords. 

Says  the  Review,  "  There  is  not  a  step,  but  sim- 
ply a  hand's-breadth  between  the  condition  of  our 
agricultural  labourers,  and  pauperism  !  For  al- 
though the  labour  of  our  parish  yards  and  Unions 
is  more  dependent  and  less  remunerated  than  that 
of  the  free  labour  of  those  who  keep  themselves 
aloof  from  the  parish,  yet  such  is  the  actual  condi- 
tion of  the  farming  men  of  this  country,  to  say 
nothing  of  Ireland,  that  if  only  sickness  during  a 
few  weeks  assail  them,  or  they  lose  employment 
for  the  same  length  of  time,  they  have  nothing  to 
fall  back  upon,  but  the  large  district  receptacles  for 
the  sick,  the  famishing,  and  the  infirm.  *  *  * 
Misery  everywhere  exists — vast  and  incalculable 
misery  !  but  it  is  more  obvious,  condensed,  palpi- 
tating, and  fuller  of  interest  to  a  mere  casual  ob- 
server, in  the  great  towns  and  cities,  than  in  the 
fields,  moors,  fens,  and  mountains  of  our  land. 
Misery  in  the  country  is  less  obvious  to  the 
passer-by,  to  the  votary  of  pleasure  and  dissipa- 
tion, and  even  to  the  man  of  leisure  and  reflection : 
but  it  is  not  the  less  real.  The  cottagers  of  Eng- 
land, once  so  cheerful  and  gay,  are  melancholy 
and  mournful.  The  voice  of  singing  is  never 
heard  within  their  walls.  Their  unhappy  in- 


OF  THE  BRITISH  PEOPLE.        243 

mates  vegetate  on  potatoes  and  hard  dumplings, 
and  keep  themselves  warm  with  hot  water  pour- 
ed over  one  small  teaspoonful  of  tea  that  barely 
colours  the  water,  and  which  is  administered  to 
the  fretful  children  by  their  anxious  and  impover- 
ished parents." 

"  We  have  not  taken  these  statements  for  grant- 
ed :  we  have  not  fallen  into  the  cry  of '  harcl  times 
for  the  agricultural  poor.'  without  knowing  them 
to  be  so ;  and  we  are  as  well  acquainted  with  the 
farming  labourer's  repast,  as  we  are  with  their  mi- 
series. They  are  ground  down  by  iron  and 
searching  poverty,  and  their  meals  are  neither  nu- 
tritive in  quality,  nor  adequate  in  solid  amount." 

From  all  I  can  gather,  I  have  no  hesitation  in 
saying,  that  the  wages  of  agricultural  labourers 
will  not  average  Ss.  per  week.  I  am  not  now 
speaking  of  the  average  including  all  the  adult 
able-bodied  male  peasantry,  for  vast  multitudes 
are  compelled  to  remain  idle. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  the  price  of  la- 
bour, like  the  price  of  everything  else,  depends  on 
the  proportion  the  demand  bears  to  the  supply. 
Where  there  is  so  much  surplus  labour  as  there  is 
in  England,  the  poor  who  have  no  other  resources 
are  obliged  to  bid  against  each  other,  until  their 
labour  falls  in  the  market  to  so  low  a  rate,  that  a 
whole  family  may  often  find  themselves  unable 
even  by  the  most  wasting  and  ceaseless  toil  to 
get  a  sufficient  supply  of  the  coarsest  bread  to  al- 
lay the  pains  of  hunger.  This  competition  is 


244  SUFFERING    AND    CRIME 

ruinous  to  the  poor.  The  rich  merchant  is  often 
made  bankrupt  by  being  compelled  to  dispose  of 
his  goods  in  a  market  he  already  finds  glutted 
with  the  only  articles  he  has  to  sell ;  how  much 
more  seriously  is  this  misfortune  felt  by  whole 
masses,  who  are  never  sought  after  by  the  propri- 
etors, but  who  crowd  around  every  spot  where  work 
is  to  be'done,  offering  to  labour  for  the  scantiest  pit- 
tance rather  than  stand  idle.  This  is  the  case  all 
over  the  British  Islands.  Everywhere  there  are 
more  workmen  than  work.  It  is  no  argument 
against  this  to  say  that  English  manufactures 
have  increased  in  a  far  greater  ratio  than  the  pop- 
ulation, for  the  work  of  several  hundred  millions 
of  men  is  now  done  by  labour-saving  machinery. 

This  I  shall  show  when  I  come  to  speak  of 
800,000  hand-loom  weavers,  who  waste  away 
their  muscles  in  a  painful  attempt  to  compete 
with  the  tremendous  power  of  machinery  It  still 
remains  true,  that  after  all  the  wonderful  inven- 
tions of  modern  times  which  have  called  such 
half-miraculous  power  into  play,  there  never  was 
a  period  when  the  English  labourer  struggled  so 
hard  to  live,  or  lived  in  such  suffering  as  now. 

Another  thing  must  be  considered.  The  great 
question  to  settle  is  not,  how  much  money  the 
labourer  receives  for  his  work  ;  but  how  many  of 
the  necessaries  and  comforts  of  life  it  will  procure 
him ;  for  upon  this  the  value  of  the  poor  man's 
labour  entirely  depends.  And  although  it  is 
undoubtedly  .true,  that  the  money  rate  of  wages 


OF    THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  245 

in  England  and  Scotland,  generally  exceeds  some- 
what that  of  the  continent,  yet  in  consequence  of 
the  enormous  price  of  all  the  necessaries  of  life, 
the  English  labourer  is  often  more  dependant  and 
suffers  more,  than  the  labourers  of  most,  if  not  all 
other  European  countries. 

Soon  after  the  "anti-corn  law  league"  was 
organized,  a  new  spirit  of  inquiry  into  the  condi- 
tion of  the  people  was  awakened.  This  resulted 
in  so  thorough  an  investigation,  and  in  the  accu- 
mulation of  facts  so  incontrovertible,  that  no  person 
who  has  any  reputation  for  accuracy  or  intelli- 
gence to  preserve,  will  risk  it  upon  a  denial  of  the 
terrible  truth, — that  misery  vast  and  incalculable 
everywhere  prevails  in  the  three  kingdoms  ;  and 
that  the  agricultural  labourers,  so  far  from  being 
exempt  from  the  general  distress,  have  been  among 
the  severest  sufferers. 

In  giving  an  account  of  an  investigation  into 
the  condition  of  the  peasantry  of  Devonshire,  the 
garden  of  England,  the  editor  of  the  anti-corn 
circular,  says : — 

'•'  We  invite  particular  attention  to  the  account 
of  the  condition  of  the  Devonshire  peasantry, 
given  in  this  number.  It  appears  that  the  aver- 
age wages  paid  to  the  labourers  who  till  the  soil 
of  that  garden  of  England,  are  under  eight  shil- 
lings a  week  !  Tens  of  thousands  of  heads  of 
families  are  there  toiling  for  a  shilling  or  fourteen 
pence  a  day  each,  which,  supposing  them  to  have 
a  wife  and  three  children,  will  not  be  more  than 
21* 


246  SUFFERING    AND    CRIME 

eighteen- pence  a  head ; — less  by  sixpence  than  is 
allowed  for  the  subsistence  of  a  pauper  in  the 
Manchester  workhouse, — nay,  less  than  is  paid 
for  the  food  and  clothing  of  the  criminals  confined 
in  our  New  Bailey  prison  !  Such  are  the  peasantry 
of  beautiful  Devonshire.  Truly  may  it  be  said 
of  that  country, — -God  created  a  paradise,  and 
man  surrounded  it  with  an  atmosphere  of  misery, 
and  peopled  it  with  the  wretched  victims  of  selfish 
legislation  !." 

In  putting  on  record  the  weekly  expenditure 
of  a  peasant's  family,  whose  receipts  were  seven 
shillings  a  week,  the  writer  adds,  "  the  account 
subjoined  is  not  imaginative,  being  taken  from  the 
mouth  of  an  honest  and  industrious  peasant,  living 
and  working  in  the  parish  of  Tiverton.  His 
family  consists,  of  himself,  his  wife,  and  four  chil- 
dren,— the  ages  of  the  latter  being  seven,  six,  four, 
and  two  years."  The  following  is  the  literal 
account  given  me  by  the  parties  : — 

5.      d. 

Rent  of  two  rooms  and  garden         -        -        -        -  1  4 
One  peck  of  wheat          -        -        -        -        2s.  Od. 

Grinding 0    1J 

Barm OOj 

2  2 

Half  a  bag  of  potatoes     -        -        -        -        -        -26 

One  pound  of  lard -        -  0  7J 

Candles   -----  -  0  1 

Soap        -  -  0  1 

Salt 0  0| 

Milk,  (scalded,)  six  pinta        -        -        -        -        -  0  2 

t    0 


OF    THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE-  247 

I  entered  the  dwelling  of  a  poor  peasant  in  the 
parish  of  Newton  Poppleton,  (between  Topsham 
and  Sidmouth,)  for  the  purpose  of  investigating 
an  alleged  case  of  "  comparative  comfort."  At 
the  village  inn  I  had  fallen  into  conversation  with 
two  farmers,  one  of  whom,  in  reply  to  my  loudly 
expressed  regret  at  the  misery  of  the  labourers  in 
that  district,  informed  me  that  that  misery  was 
exaggerated.  "  For  instance,"  said  he,  "  one  of 
my  men  receives  7s.  a  week,  and  has  a  house 
rent  free."  For  the  moment  I  conceded  the  fact 
as  a  creditable  exception  to  the  general  rule  ;  but, 
on  the  departure  of  farmer  Thomas,  determined 
to  visit  the  happy  family,  and,  accompanied  by  a 
guide,  proceeded  on  my  errand.  I  found  the 
mother  and  her  five  little  ones  at  home.  One  of 
them  was  ill,  and  it  was  evident  that  none  of  them 
were  overfed.  They  had  not  tasted  meat  for 
months.  The  weekly  consumption  of  coarse 
bread  was  eight  four-pound  loaves,  at  sevenpence 
halfpenny  the  loaf,  purchased  from  the  baker  at  a 
cost  of  five  shillings, — five-sevenths  of  the  week's 
wages !  Potatoes,  and  soap,  and  salt  consumed 
the  remaining  pittance. 

For  fuel  the  children  prowl,  like  gypsies,  along 
the  lanes  and  through  the  woods,  gathering  a  few 
rotten  sticks,  or  the  mother  proceeds  to  the  nearest 
waste  for  her  burthen  of  turf.  Not  the  least 
provision  against  casual  sickness  or  premature 
infirmity  can  ever  be  made  out  of  the  peasant's 
earnings. 


248  SUFFERING    AND    CRIME 

This  account  was  published  in  the  Somerset 
County  Gazette.  The  editor  expressed  great 
surprise  that  such  a  state  of  things  prevailed  in 
Devonshire,  and  congratulated  the  peasantry  of 
Somerset  on  their  independence.  A  committee 
however,  was  appointed  to  make  a  similar  inquiry 
into  their  condition.  In  reference  to  it  the  editor 
says  : — 

"  At  the  Board  of  Guardians  on  Wednesday, 
however,  we  received  painful  evidence  that  the 
agricultural  labourers  of  Somerset  are,  if  it  be 
possible,  worse  off  than  those  of  Devonshire.  One 
case  will  be  sufficient. 

"  A  woman  applied  for  relief  in  consequence  of 
the  ill  health  of  herself  and  children,  and  the  cer- 
tificate of  the  medical  officer  stated  her  to  be  suf- 
fering from  want  of  sufficient  nourishment.  She 
bore  two  children  in  her  arms,  one  of  them  hav- 
ing inflamed  eyes.  The  case  was  strictly  ex- 
amhied,  and  with  a  view  to  information  on  the 
real  state  of  our  boasted  peasantry — the  happy 
children  of  the  soil — the  pride  of  our  land,  as 
they  are  called  by  poets  and  landlords,  we  put  se- 
veral questions,  the  answers  to  which  filled  us 
with  surprise.  The  following  is  the  substance  of 
her  statement. 

"  Her  husband  is  a  farm  labourer,  working  for 
a  farmer  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of 
Taunton.  His  wages  are  seven  shillings  a  week 
only,  with  an  allowance  of  cider  for  himself.  We 
ascertained  that  these  were  the  wages  generally 


OF    THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  249 

given  by  the  farmers  in  this  vicinity.  The  fami- 
ly consists  of  the  peasant,  his  wife,  and  five  chil- 
dren under  ten  years  old.  The  farmer  sells  them 
wheat,  not  the  best,  but  still,  she  said,  very  good, 
at  eight  shillings  a  bushel.  She  bought  half  a 
bushel  a  week,  which  consumed  four  shillings  out 
of  the  seven.  She  paid  eighteen  pence  a  week 
for  house  rent ;  it  cost  her  sixpence  a  week  for 
grinding,  baking  and  barm,  to  make  the  wheat 
into  bread ;  another  sixpence  was  consumed  in 
firing,  and  only  a  solitary  sixpence  was  left  to 
provide  the  family  with  the  luxury  of  potatoes, 
clothes,  and  other  necessaries,  for  comforts  they 
had  none.  And  this  is  the  condition  of  the  En- 
glish labourer." 

These,  and  similar  accounts  of  the  peasantry 
in  every  part  of  England,  were  published  more 
than  two  years  ago.  Since  then  the  state  of 
things  has  been  growing  worse  and  worse  every 
day.  The  price  of  food  has  greatly  increased. 
Commercial  embarrassment  has  carried  a  distress 
hitherto  unknown  through  every  part  of  the  coun- 
try ;  and  the  most  undoubted  authorities,  Quar- 
terly Reviews,  Members  of  Parliament,  London 
and  Provincial  Journals,  have  all  confirmed  the 
sad  truth,  that  although  the  peasantry  have  been 
surrounded  by  overflowing  granaries,  yet  "  those 
who  till  the  earth  and  make  it  lovely  and  fruitful 
by  their  labours,  are  only  allowed  the  slave's  share 
of  the  many  blessings  they  produce." 

A  powerful  writer  in  the  Westminster  Review, 


250  SUFFERING    AND    CRIME 

in  alluding  to  the  insensibility  of  the  upper  and 
middle  classes  to  the  distress  of  the  lower  orders, 
remarks  :  "  They  have  so  long  been  habituated 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  existence  of  misery,  want 
and  privation,  that  they  ask  with  indolent  or  va- 
pid indifference  when  pressed  upon  to  consider 
the  whole  question — '  what  is  there  new  that  we 
have  not  yet  heard  of?  Is  there  any  thing  par- 
ticular to  which  you  refer  ?'  Tell  them  that  an 
agricultural  labourer  who  toils  twelve,  and  some- 
times fourteen  hours  per  day,  in  cold,  rain,  frost, 
sun,  fog,  alternately  frozen,  bleached,  and  drench- 
ed, earns  for  his  week's  labour,  for  the  support  of 
himself  and  his  wife,  and  four  young  children, 
none  of  them  able  to  leave  the  hut  in  which  they 
reside,  without  their  mother  accompanying  them  ; 
the  wretched  pittance  of  twelve  shillings  (which 
is  nearly  or  quite  double  the  average  sum.}  and 
they  will  ask,  '  Oh  !  that  has  been  the  price  for  a 
long  time  past — is  that  all  V 

"  No,  it  is  not  all ;  for  these  men  shall  hear  fur- 
ther how  these  twelve  shillings  are  expended  ; 
and  when  they  look  on  their  own  purple  and  fine 
linen,  their  own  tables  groaning  under  the  lux- 
uries piled  on  them,  and  see  their  own  eyes  stand 
out  with  fatness,  let  the  bill  of  fare,  of  their  fellow 
man,  the  labourer,  stare  them  in  the  face  : 


OF    THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  251 

Rent  -        -  2s.  Od. 

Flour 50 

Cheese      -  ....  0    7 

Tea 07 

Potatoes 0  10 

Sugar 07 

Bacon        -  .-08 

Soap  and  Candles      -        -        -        -  0    7 

Wood  or  Coals          -        -        -        -  1    2 


12    0 

"  No  butter — no  milk — no  meat — no  red  her- 
rings even — no  clothing — no  medicine  for  the 
children — no  shoes  or  boots — no  provision  put  by 
for  the  times  when  the  husband  may  be  unable 
to  work  from  sickness  or  accident ;  and  yet  the 
twelve  shillings  are  gone !  yes,  gone  !  And  in 
what  ?  In  insufficient  food  for  the  body !  We 
visited  lately  fifty  such  cases.  There  are  500,000 
more  to  be  looked  to,  and  500,000  more  beyond 
them.  So  here  is  a  population,  and  in  England 
too,  and  in  some  of  our  best  districts,  existing  on 
bread  and  potatoes,  with  no  meat,  beer,  or  milk, 
from  year's  end  to  year's  end,  but  two  ounces  of 
tea  and  a  pound  of  moist  sugar  for  husband,  wife 
and  four  children,  for  a  whole  week  !  and  this 
normal  state  is  viewed  with  a  sort  of  complacency 
by  those  who  inquire  '  is  there  any  thing  new  T 
Yes,  it  is  new  in  the  history  of  the  world,  that 
an  enlightened,  industrious,  indefatigable  peasan- 
try, should  exist  on  such  fare,  and  should  brook 
such  a  state  of  being." 

The  same  writer  declares,  that  "  the  constant, 


252  SUFFERING    AND    CRIME 

the  perpetual  state  daring  some  years  past,  of  the 
English  agricultural  poor  is  disgraceful  to  the 
name  and  character  of  the  British  Nation." 

He  institutes  a  comparison  between  their  con- 
dition and  that  of  the  same  classes  on  the  conti- 
nent, and  enters  into  statistical  calculations  which 
show  a  state  of  things  far  more  favourable  to  the 
continental  labourer ;  chiefly  because  the  necessa- 
ries of  life  are  so  much  cheaper  on  the  continent. 
"  And  we  are  not,"  says  this  bold,  humane  writer, 
"  to  be  sneered  or  balked  out  of  these  facts,  by  the 
idle  and  vain  boastings  about  '  our  matchless  con- 
stitution '  or  '  our  wooden  walls.'  It  is  then  wholly 
incorrect  to  assert  that  our  English  agricultural 
labourers  are  in  a  condition  at  all  parallel  to  those 
of  France,  Belgium,  or  Switzerland." 

According  to  the  result  of  Mr.  Symons'  investi- 
gations, the  continental  labourer  procures  with  his 
wages  more  of  the  comforts  of  life  than  the  En- 
glishman. In  his  "  Philosophical  Inquiry  into 
the  nature  of  a  sound  currency,"  James  Pedie,  of 
Edinburgh,  arrives  at  the  same  conclusion.  And 
yet  all  men  know  that  the  agricultural  labourers 
on  the  continent  are  only  a  very  little  removed 
from  the  condition  of  serfdom. 

In  the  debate  in  the  House  of  Lords  on  the  col- 
lieries, Earl  Fitzwilliam  expressed  the  belief,  that 
if  the  inquiry  was  extended  to  the  peasantry,  they 
would  be  found  to  be  in  a  condition  no  better  than 
that  of  the  "  SLAVES  IN  THE  COAL  MINES  :"  and 
in  this  belief  several  noble  lords  concurred. 


OP    THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE,  253 

I  might  crowd  facts  together,  and  accumulate 
evidence,  but  the  case  would  be  no  more  strongly 
made  out.  Our  Republican  travellers  have  said 
little  about  the  condition  of  the  poor  in  Great 
Britain  of  any  class  ;  much  less  have  they  thought 
of  looking  for  distress  in  the  English  cottage. 
Little  has  been  known,  even  in  England,  among 
the  higher  classes,  of  the  agricultural  distress  un- 
til recently,  and  they  have  cared  still  less  than 
they  knew.  All  hear  the  groan  of  the  Factory 
operatives  who  are  congregated  in  dense  masses 
in  the  large  manufacturing  towns.  But  from  the 
scattered  and  isolated  position  of  the  country  la- 
bourers, their  sufferings  are  less  likely  to  be  in- 
quired into.  Poets  who  vegetate  in  Grub  street 
attics  may  sing  of  "  vine-clad  cottages,"  and  Re- 
publican tourists,  who  struggle  to  gain  admittance 
to  aristocratic  circles  abroad,  (and  this  is  no  diffi- 
cult matter  for  any  foreigner,)  and  who  are  there 
flattered,  not  only  out  of  their  republicanism  but 
their  humanity,  may  "say  a  thousand  soft  things 
of  Lords  and  Ladies,  and  England  being  a  Para- 
dise ;  it  will  nevertheless  remain  true,  that  "  there 
is  not  a  step,  but  simply  a  handslreadth  between 
the  condition  of  the  English  agricultural  labourer 
and  pauperism." 

INFANT  AND  FEMALE  SLAVES  IN  THE  BRITISH 
COAL  MINES. — The  friends  of  humanity  in  Eng- 
land are  engaged  in  a  noble  work.  They  are 
tearing  off  the  mask  from  the  gilded  institutions 

VOL.  i.  22 


254  SUFFERING    AND    CRIME 

of  Britain,  and  displaying  to  the  gaze  of  the  world, 
barbarities  and  oppressions  inflicted  upon  the 
down-trodden  masses  of  the  poor,  compared  with 
which  African  slavery  in  its  worst  forms  is  a  hu- 
mane and  beneficent  system. 

This  assertion  will  grate  harshly  on  the  ears  of 
those  Abolitionists  who  have  been  so  greatly  en- 
raged, that  after  witnessing  for  myself  the  condi- 
tion of  the  English  operative  and  the  American 
slave,  I  should  say  as  I  did,  in  the  "  Glory  and 
the  Shame  of  England,"  that  of  the  two  I  would 
choose  the  lot  of  the  latter  for  my  children.  How- 
ever little  humanity  this  class  of  one-sided  dema- 
gogues may  award  to  the  rest  of  the  community, 
I  believe  they  are  the  only  men  in  this  country 
whose  sympathies  and  indignation  will  not  be 
deeply  stirred  by  the  facts  I  shall  relate. 

"  Talk  of  slavery  !"  exclaims  the  Dublin  Free- 
man's Journal.  "  What  slave  is  in  a  worse  condi- 
tion than  that  described  by  the  Commissioners' 
Report  ?  Are  the  female  slaves  treated  as  these 
poor  women?  Are  the  children  of  slaves  set  to 
work  at  six  years  of  age,  and  kept  at  work  for 
twelve  hours  daily  ?  Is  the  negro  boy  worked  for 
six-and-thirty  hours  without  interruption  ?  No ; 
slavery  in  its  most  hideous  form  never  equalled 
this ;  and  the  condition,  physical  as  well  as  mor- 
al, of  the  most  degraded  bondsman,  may  be  es- 
teemed exalted  if  compared  with  that  of  the  free 
collier  of  England." 

The  Commission  appointed  by  Parliament  to 


OF    THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  255 

inquire  into  the  employment  of  children  and  its 
effects  upon  their  morals  and  health,  aided  by 
twenty  sub-commissioners,  thoroughly  qualified 
for  their  work,  during  the  month  of  May  last,  laid 
before  the  House  of  Commons  2,000  folio  pages  as 
the  result  of  their  investigations.  In  speaking  of 
this  Report,  a  London  Journal  says,  "  The  infer- 
nal cruelty  practised  upon  boys  and  girls  in  the 
coal  mines,  these  graves  both  of  comfort  and  vir- 
tue, have  never  in  any  age  been  outdone.  The 
recent  disclosures  made  in  this  Report  may  well 
excite  the  horror  of  every  individual  in  whom  a 
vestige  of  humanity  remains.  We  have  some- 
times read,  with  shuddering  disgust,  of  the  out- 
rages committed  upon  helpless  childhood  by  man, 
when  existing  in  a  state  of  naked  savageness. 
We  aver  our  belief,  that  in  cold-blooded  atrocity, 
they  do  not  equal  what  is  going  on  from  day  to 
day  in  some  of  our  coal  mines.  Young  crea- 
tures, both  male  and  female — six,  seven,  eight, 
nine  years  old,  stark  naked  in  some  cases,  chained 
like  brutes  to  coal  carriages,  and  dragging  them 
on  all-fours,  through  sludge  six  or  seven  inches 
deep,  in  total  darkness,  for  ten,  occasionally  twen- 
ty, in  special  instances,  thirty  hours  successively, 
without  any  other  cessation,  even  to  get  meals, 
than  is  casually  afforded  by  the  unreadiness  of 
the  miners — here  is  a  pretty  picture  of  British  ci- 
vilization. One  cannot  read  through  the  evidence 
taken  by  the  commission  above  referred  to,  with- 


256  SUFFERING    AND    CRIME 

out  being  strongly  tempted  to  abjure  the  very 
name  of  Englishman." 

One  is  almost  tempted  after  reading  the  disgust- 
ing and  horrible  details  of  this  Report,  to  believe 
that  the  days  of  ancient  heathenism  have  again 
returned,  when  the  worshippers  of  Moloch  caused 
their  children  to  pass  through  the  fire.  We  will 
glance,  as  briefly  as  possible,  at  some  of  the  facts 
contained  in  this  voluminous  record  of  infant  and 
female  woe. 

The  age  at  which  Children  are  forced  into  the 
mines. — Will  it  be  believed  that  there  are  many 
infants  under  nine  years  of  age,  enslaved  in  these 
dismal  caverns,  several  hundred  feet  under 
ground?  Nay,  that  there  are  some  little  crea- 
tures driven  down  to  their  slave  tasks  who  have 
not  lived  long  enough  plainly  to  articulate  their 
mother  tongue?  That  they  are  confined  to  their 
prostrating  tasks  twelve,  sixteen,  nay,  even  thirty, 
and  thirty-six  hours  at  a  time  ?  No  sober  man 
would  believe  that  such  barbarities  are  perpetrated 
upon  children  in  a  Christian  land,  unless  the 
astounding  truth  came  to  him  on  evidence  ir- 
reproachable. 

The  Report  states  that  six  years  is  a  common 
age  at  which  children  are  thrust  into  these  mines, 
while  many  are  forced  there  at  a  still  tenderer  age. 
One  witness  says,  "  I  have  been  acquainted  with 
colleries  nearly  all  my  life,  and  I  know  it  as  a 
fact,  that  a  collier  now  living  has  taken  a  child  of 
his  own,  who  was  only  three  years  old  into  the 


OF    THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  257 

pit,  to  '  hurry,'  and  when  the  child  was  exhausted 
it  was  carried  home,  stripped  and  put  to  bed." 

John  Ibbotson,  another  witness,  says,  "  I  have 
been  forty-five  years  in  the  pits,  and  I  knew  a 
man,  called  Joseph  Canthrey,  who  sent  a  child  in 
at  four  years,  and  there  are  many  who  go  to 
'  thrust  behind,  at  that  time,  and  many  more  at 
jive :  but  it  is  soon  enough  for  them  to  go  at  nine 
or  ten,  and  the  sooner  they  go  in,  the  sooner  their 
constitution  is  mashed  up."1 " 

The  Commissioners  say  that  the  proprietors 
seemed  reluctant  to  acknowledge  the  truth  in  re- 
gard to  the  age  of  the  children,  but  that  the  prac- 
tice of  sending  them  to  the  mines  at  this  early 
age,  is  "  as  universal  as  it  is  barbarous"  One 
case  is  recorded  in  which  a  child  was  regularly 
taken  to  the  pit-work  at  three  years  of  age.  After 
the  infant  had  worked  itself  into  exhaustion,  it 
was  thrown  upon  the  damp  coal  until  night,  when 
its  father  went  home.  And  it  was  also  stated, 
that  "  out  of  thirty  children  employed  in  six  pits 
in  the  Halifax  district,  seventeen  are  between  five 
and  nine  years  of  age." 

Says  Mr.  Fletcher,  one  of  the  Sub-commission- 
ers :  "  In  the  smaller  collieries  of  the  Oldham  dis- 
trict, which  had  only  thin  strata,  varying  in  thick- 
ness from  eighteen  inches  to  twenty-four,  children 
are  employed  so  early  as  six,  five,  and  even  four 
years  of  age.  Some  are  so  young,  that  they  go 
even  in  their  bed-gowns.  One  little  fellow,  whom  I 
endeavoured  to  question,  could  not  even  articulate." 
22* 


258  SUFFERING    AND    CRIME 

The  condition  of  these  children,  and  the  labour 
they  perform. — It  would  seem  impossible  even 
for  avarice  itself  to  contrive  a  plan  by  which  the 
soft  muscles  of  infants  could  be  coined  into  gold. 
But  it  has  been  done  most  effectually.  No  indi- 
vidual miner  is  allowed  to  do  more  than  a  certain 
quantity  of  work,  but  for  every  child  he  introduces 
into  the  mine  a  farther  allowance  of  work  is 
awarded  to  him,  and  the  consequence  is,  children 
are  put  to  hurry — a  technical  term  for  pushing  or 
drawing  trucks  of  coal  through  the  narrow  seams' 
where  adults  cannot  get — almost  as  soon  as  they 
can  go  by  themselves. 

From  a  remark  of  the  commissioners,  it  would 
seern  that  the  regulation  which  thus  stints  the 
labour  of  the  parent  and  offers  him  a  premium  for 
that  of  his  infant,  is  attributable  to  the  coal  own- 
ers. If  it  were  not,  the  stern  demands  of  neces- 
sity and  the  calls  of  hunger,  would  compel  the 
poor  miner  to  enslave  his  children  to  brutalizing 
toil,  rather  than  see  them  utterly  starve. 

But  one  would  suppose  that  even  if  tender  chil- 
dren were  forced  up  to  hard  labour,  yet  still  they 
would  not  be  condemned  to  the  most  prostrating 
and  destroying  kind;  but,  on  the  contrary,  the 
work  required  of  them  is  often  of  the  most  horrible 
description.  Mr.  Fellows,  one  of  the  sub-commis- 
sioners gives  the  following  graphic  picture  : — 

"  I  wish  to  call  the  attention  of  the  board  to  the 
pits  about  Brampton.  The  seams  are  so  thin  that 
several  have  only  two  feet  headway  to  all  the 


OF    THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  259 

works.  The  pits  are  altogether  worked  by  boys. 
The  elder  one  lies  on  his  side,  and  in  that  posture 
holes  and  gets  the  coal.  It  is  then  loaded  in  a 
barrow  or  tub,  and  drawn  along  the  bank  of  the 
pit  mouth,  without  wheels,  by  boys  from  eight  to 
twelve  years  of  age,  on  all  fours,  with  dog  belts 
and  chains,  the  passages  being  very  often  an  inch 
or  two  thick  in  black  mud,  and  are  neither  ironed 
nor  wooded.  In  Mr.  Barneys  pit  these  poor  boys 
have  to  drag  the  barrows  with  one  cwt.  of  coals 
sixty  times  a  day  sixty  yards,  and  the  empty 
barrows  back,  without  once  straightening  their 
backs,  unless  they  stand  under  the  shaft  and  run 
the  risk  of  having  their  heads  broken  by  a  coal 
falling." — Again  he  says,  "  out  of  five  children  I 
examined  who  worked  in  the  Brampton  pits,  three 
were  not  only  bow-legged,  but  their  arms  were 
bowed  in  the  same  way ;  and  their  whole  frame 
appeared  far  from  being  well  developed." 

Another  commissioner  in  describing  the  Halifax 
miners,  draws  this  melancholy  picture. 

"  The  narrowness  of  the  space  in  which  all  the 
operations,"  he  says,  "  must  be  carried  on,  of 
course  materially  influences  the  labour  of  the 
children  and  young  persons.  Fortunately  few 
children  are  needed  in  them  as  trappers ;  but 
those  that  are  employed,  as  in  most  other  districts, 
sit  in  perfect  darkness.  I  can  never  forget  the 
first  unfortunate  creature  of  this  class  that  I  met 
with.  It  was  a  boy  about  eight  years  old,  who 
looked  at  me  as  I  passed  with  an  expression  of 


260  SUFFERING    AND   CRIME 

countenance  the  most  abject  and  idiotic — like  a 
thing-,  a  creeping  thing,  peculiar  to  the  place.  On 
approaching  and  speaking  to  him,  he  shrunk 
trembling  and  affrighted  in  a  corner,  as  if  I  was 
about  to  do  him  some  bodily  injury,  and  from 
which  neither  coaxing  nor  temptations  could  draw 
him  out." 

The  report  goes  on  to  say  : 

"  The  ages  of  the  children  (the  trappers)  vary 
from  six  and  a  half  to  ten  years  old ;  few  come 
before  they  are  nearly  seven,  and  few  remain 
longer  than  nine.  It  is  a  most  painful  thing  to 
contemplate  the  dull  dungeon-like  life  these 
creatures  are  doomed  to  spend  ;  a  life  for  the  most 
part,  passed  in  solitude,  damp,  and  darkness. 
They  are  allowed  no  light ;  but  sometimes  a  good 
natured  collier  will  bestow  a  little  bit  of  candle  on 
them  as  a  treat.  On  one  occasion,  as  I  was  pass- 
ing a  little  trapper,  he  begged  of  me  a  little  grease 
from  my  candle.  I  found  that  the  poor  child  had 
scooped  out  a  hole  in  a  great  stone,  and  having 
obtained  a  wick,  had  manufactured  a  rude  sort 
of  lamp — and  that  he  kept  it  going  as  well  as  he 
could,  by  begging  contributions  of  melted  tallow 
from  the  candles  of  any  passers  by" 

One  child  says  : — 

'  I've  no  time  to  play  ;  I  never  see  daylight  all 
the  week  in  winter,  except  when  I  look  up  the 
pitshaft,  and  then  it  looks  about  half  a  yard  wide. 

Another  aged  seven,  says  : 

'  I  stop  twelve  hours  in  the  pit ;    /  never  see 


OF    THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  261 

daylight  now  except  on  Sundays  /  I  fell  asleep 
one  day,  and  a  corve  ran  over  my  leg  and  made 
it  smart ;  they'd  squeeze  me  against  the  door  if  I 
fall  a  sleep  again.' 

'•  George  Foster  (12  years)  has  wrought  a  dou- 
ble shift  of  twenty-four  hours  three  times  in  the 
Benton  pit.  About  a  year  and  a  half  ago  he 
wrought  three  shifts  at  one  time,  going  down  at 
four  o'clock  one  morning,  and  staying  thirty-six 
hours  without  coming  up.  The  overman  asked 
him  to  stop,  &c.  A  great  quantity  of  boys  are 
doing  this  now,  from  a  scarcity  of  work.  * 
Some  lads  have  worked  double  shifts,  thirty-six 
hours  lately.  John  Clough,  aged  fourteen,  work- 
ed thirty-six  hours  last  Friday,  (his  brother  con- 
firms this.") 

But  there  is  yet  a  darker  side  of  this  appalling 
picture.  Girls  as  well  as  boys,  infant  girls  and 
young  women,  are  thus  employed ;  and  such  are 
the  degrading  effects  of  habit,  that  when  these 
girls  grow  up  to  puberty  they  continue  to  work 
in  the  mines  without  the  slightest  sense  of  their 
position,  being  other  than  is  fitting  a  state  of 
civilization.  These  females  are  not  kept  as 
u  trappers,"  or  put  to  some  other  light  occupation  : 
they  are  harnessed  to  the  "corves,"  and  must 
draw  their  loads  as  well  as  the  men  ! 

"  Girls,  says  Mr.  Scriven,  from^ye  to  eighteen, 
perform  the  work  of  boys.  There  is  no  distinc- 
tion whatever  in  their  coming  up  the  shaft  or 
going  down — in  the  mode  of  hurrying  or  thrust- 


262  SUFFERING    AND    CRIME 

ing — in  the  weights  or  corves,  or  in  the  distances 
they  are  hurried — in  wages  or  dress." 

"  A  broad  belt  is  buckled  round  their  waist,  to 
the  front  of  which  a  chain  is  fastened,  which, 
when  they  go  down  on  all  fours,  is  passed  between 
their  legs  and  attached  to  the  corve,  which  they 
draw  after  them,  thus  harnessed  to  it  like  animals/' 

An  Irish  writer,  with  the  enthusiasm  of  his 
nation,  says  of  this  treatment  of  females  : 

"  Thank  Heaven  we  have  not  been  assimilated 
in  all  things !  and  from  lands-end  to  lands-end 
throughout  Ireland  the  bare  mention  of  placing  a 
woman  '  all  fours,'  and  harnessing  her  to  a  cart, 
would  be  met  with  a  shout  of  indignation  that 
would  make  civilized  England  blush.  The  evi- 
dence of  one  woman  is  so  strikingly  illustrative  of 
the  immoral  tendency  of  the  practice  of  having 
women  employed  at  such  labour,  that  we  quote  it, 
even  at  the  risk  of  being  thought  to  dwell  too  long 
upon  a  subject  so  abhorrent  to  all  the  higher  feel- 
ings of  our  nature.  Says  this  female  witness 
examined  : — '  I  wear  a  belt  and  chain  at  the  work- 
ings to  get  the  corves  out.  The  getters  are  naked, 
except  their  caps;  they  pull  off  all  their  clothes. 
I  see  them  at  work  when  I  go  up.  They  some- 
times beat  me,  if  I  am  not  quick  enough.  There 
are  twenty  boys  and  fifteen  men.  All  are  naked.' " 

But  horrible  as  is  the  condition  of  these  chil- 
dren, there  is  another  class  whose  fate  is  infinitely 
worse — the  orphans,  children  of  paupers,  who  are 
apprenticed  as  "hurriers"  by  the  parish  officers 


OF    THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  263 

to  the  conductors  of  the  mines.  Of  this  barbarous 
custom,  the  London  Morning  Herald  remarks : 
"  The  usual  plan  is  to  bind  them  to  this  worse 
than  negro  slavery  in  its  worst  days,  from  the 
age  of  nine  years  to  twenty-one,  but  even  this  mer- 
ciful limitation  of  the  bondage  is  evaded  without 
scruple.  Mr.  Symons,  sub-commissioner,  men- 
tions a  'very  gross  case'  of  the  Dewsbury  union 
apprenticing  a  child  who  was  not  five  years  of  age, 
and  having  been  remonstrated  with,  pleaded  that 
they  had  not  formally  bound  him,  and  should  not 
until  he  was  nine  !  At  Halifax  '  a  great  number 
of  children  are  apprenticed  by  the  boards  of  guar- 
dians as  hurriers,  from  the  age  of  eight  years  to 
twenty-one,'  getting  rid  of  the  children  by  pay- 
ment of  a  sovereign  ;  and  at  Oldham  '  they  have 
bound  more  parish  children  apprentices  to  miners 
latterly  than  to  any  other  trade.' " 

The  savage  barbarity  that  rules  the  workhouse 
system  in  England,  is  strikingly  developed  here. 
It  cannot  be  that  the  authorities  which  consign 
these  tender  orphans  to  such  cruel  slavery,  are  ig- 
norant of  their  fate ;  they  must  know,  when  they 
send  these  "  little  ones,  cast  on  the  cold  heath  of 
the  world's  charity"  to  the  coal  caverns, — what 
they  are  doing  !  And  I  ask,  where  is  the  hu- 
manity of  a  social  system  which,  rather  than  give 
food  and  clothing  to  infant  children,  whose  parents 
are  dead,  will  deliberately  send  them  to  these  liv- 
ing graves,  where  they  are  certain  to  be  treated 
with  barbarity  ;  to  be  tortured  out  of  the  world,  or 


264  SUFFERING    AND    CRIME 

grow  up  through  the  gloom  of  suffering  to  become 
heathens  in  a  land  which  has  established  religion 
by  law,  at  an  expense  of  $50,000,000  a  year,  "  in 
order  that  the  entire  population,  and  especially  the 
poor,  may  be  supplied  with  the  bread  of  life." 

The  report  contains  more  than  enough  evidence, 
that  unheard  of  cruelties  are  inflicted  on  these  or- 
phans. An  overseer  in  one  of  the  mines  candidly 
acknowledges,  that  "  cases  of  cruelty  to  them  were 
very  common."  He  was  obliged  to  summon  three 
cases  in  one  week,  where  boys  had  been  unmerci- 
fully used,  in  one  of  which  a  child  was  nearly 
beaten  to  death.  For  some  trivial  fault,  the  fol- 
lowing outrage  was  inflicted: — "A  man  got  the 
boy's  head  between  his  legs,  and  each  boy  in  the 
pit,  and  there  were  eighteen  or  twenty  of  them,  in- 
flicted twelve  strokes  on  the  boy's  rump  and  loins 
with  a  cat.  I  never  saw  such  a  sight  in  my  life. 
The  flesh  of  the  rump  and  the  loins  were  beaten 
to  a  jelly.  The  surgeon  said  the  boy  could  not 
survive — but  He  did." 

Is  it  not  more  mysterious  than  all,  that  these 
little  creatures,  all  common  sufferers,  should  unite 
in  torturing  each  other?  Naturalists  say,  that 
even  wild  beasts  of  the  forest  are  often  known  to 
fight  in  each  other's  defence.  But  the  report  clears 
up  the  mystery,  by  stating  that  "  had  the  other 
boys  refused  to  take  part  in  the  brutality,  they 
would  have  been  served  in  the  same  way  ;  and  so 
far  from  the  case  being  an  extraordinary  one,  it 
was  quite  a  common  one"  "  No  care  whatever," 


OF    THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  265 

says  the  London  Herald,  "  is  in  fact  shown  by 
any  party  to  these  children.  Fortunate  it  is  for 
them  if  they  can  get  food,  and  still  more  fortunate 
if  they  get  time  to  enjoy  it ;  but  amusement  or  re- 
creation they  have  none,  many  of  them  never  see- 
ing daylight  for  weeks  in  the  winter;  and  as  for 
education,  secular  or  religious,  they  have  no  op- 
portunity to  acquire  it,  even  if  there  was  any  one 
to  impart  it.  Their  condition  combines  all  the  toil 
and  confinement  of  the  galley-slave,  with  the  op- 
pression of  the  kidnapped  African  ;  and  they  grow 
up  ferocious  from  ill-treatment,  to  retort  in  after 
years  the  same  ill-treatment  upon  others." 

Female  Children. — Multitudes  of  young  girls 
are  harnessed  to  carts  in  these  subterranean  pri- 
sons, and  made  to  draw  them  on  their  hands  and 
knees,  "  through  confined  passages,  perhaps  not 
two  feet  high,  and  frequently  a  foot  of  that  space 
a  thick  sludge  of  water  and  coal  dust." 

The  Report  says  that  girls  are  preferred  to  boys 
as  " hurriers"  for  their  greater  docility,  and  are 
taken  into  the  mines  even  at  an  earlier  age,  from 
a  supposition  that  "when  infants  they  are  the 
more  'cute." 

Another  commissioner  states,  that  to  all  the  re- 
volting cruelties  practised  on  the  boys,  the  girls 
are  equally  subjected :  "  Girls  perform  all  the 
offices  of  trapping,  hurrying,  filling,  riddling,  top- 
ping, and  getting  (coal  ;)  just  as  they  are  perform- 
ed by  boys.  The  practice  of  employing  females 
in  coal-pits  is  flagrantly  disgraceful  to  a  Christian 

VOL.  i.  23 


266  SUFFERING    AND    CRIME 

as  well  as  to  a  civilized  country.  On  descending 
Messrs.  Hopwood's  pit  at  Barnsley,  I  found  assem- 
bled round  the  fire  a  group  of  men,  boys,  and 
girls,  some  of  whom  were  of  the  age  of  puberty, 
the  girls  as  well  as  the  boys  stark  naked  down  to 
the  waist,  their  hair  bound  up  with  a  tight  cap, 
and  trousers  supported  by  their  hips." 

It  is  shocking  to  read  such  testimony  from  ten- 
der females.  One  says :  "  I  work  in  Hardhill 
mine.  We  hurry  the  carts  by  pushing  behind, 
but  I  frequently  draw  with  ropes  and  chains  as 
the  horses  do.  It  is  dirty,  slavish  work,  and  the 
water  quite  covers  our  ancles.  I  knock  my  head 
against  the  roofs,  as  they  are  not  so  high  as  I  am, 
and  they  cause  me  to  stoop,  and  makes  my  back 
ache." 

Another  thus  speaks  of  the  hardships  they  un- 
dergo :  "  My  employment  is  carrying  coal. — Am 
frequently  worked  from  four  in  the  morning  till 
six  at  night,  and  every  other  week  I  work  night 
work.  I  then  go  down  at  two  in  the  day,  and 
come  up  at  four  or  six  in  the  morning.  Two 
years  ago  the  pit  closed  in  upon  thirteen  of  us, 
and  we  were  without  food  and  light  two  days ; 
nearly  one  day  we  were  up  to  our  chins  in 
water." 

These  volumes  might  be  filled  with  this  branch 
of  the  evidence  contained  in  the  Report;  but, as 
remarks  the  London  Herald  :  "  We  may  content 
ourselves  with  stating  generally,  that  there  is  no 
variation  in  any  part  of  the  voluminous  evidence 


OP    THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  267 

collected  on  this  subject  of  young  girls  being  em- 
ployed in  the  coal  mines,  except  that  their  labour 
is  more  severe,  and  treatment  more  cruel,  if  pos- 
sible, in  the  east  of  Scotland  than  elsewhere." 

Young'  and  married  women. — This  class  is 
very  numerous  in  the  coal  mines,  and  their  treat- 
ment no  less  brutal  than  that  of  the  others.  We 
extract  from  their  own  evidence  :  "  We  learn  from 
the  commissioners  that  the  labour  required  by  wo- 
men, is  "  filling,  riddling,  and  carrying,"  work 
which  none  but  the  most  robust  men  can  endure, 
and  which  generally  breaks  down  their  iron  con- 
stitution very  quick. 

"  Janet  Duncan,  aged  seventeen,"  says  the 
Report,  '•  was  a  coal  bearer  at  Hen-muir-pit.  The 
carts  she  pushed  contained  three  cwt.  of  coals, 
and  it  was  very  severe  work,  especially  when  they 
had  to  stay  before  the  carts  to  prevent  their  com- 
ing down  too  fast ;  they  frequently  run  too  quick 
and  knock  us  down.  Is  able  to  say  that  the  hard- 
est day-light  work  is  infinitely  superior  to  the 
best  of  coal  work."  Margaret  Drysdale,  aged  fif- 
teen, "  did  not  like  the  work,  but  her  mother  was 
dead,  and  her  father  took  her  down  and  she  had 
no  choice.  Her  employment  is  to  draw  carts, 
and  she  had  harness  or  drag  ropes  on,  like  the 
horses." 

One  more,  Katherine  Logan,  aged  sixteen,  "  be- 
gan to  work  at  coal  carrying  more  than  five  years 
since  ;  works  in  harness  now ;  draws  backward 
with  her  face  to  the  tubs  ;  the  ropes  and  chains 


268  SUFFERING    AND    CRIME 

go  under  her  pit  clothes,  (which  consist  simply  of 
a  pair  of  boy's  trousers  ;)  '  it  is  o'er  sair  work,  es- 
pecially when  we  had  to  crawl.' " 

What  is  the  effect  of  such  slave-toil  on  married 
women,  and  why  do  they  go  to  the  mines  ? 

One  reason  why  married  women  enter  the  pits 
is,  that  "  if  they  did  not  work  below,  the  children 
would  not  go  down  so  soon."  Another,  "  because 
they  must  go  to  the  mines  or  starve,  for  there  is 
work  to  be  found  no  where  else."  Two  fearful 
but  sufficient  reasons !  One  of  these  witnesses 
says,  that  the  oppression  of  coal  bearing,  is  such 
as  to  injure  them  in  after  life, /etc  existing  whose 
legs  are  not  injured  or  else  their  hips."  The 
following  brief  extracts  will  explain  the  rest : — 

"Jane  Johnson,  aged  twenty-nine. — I  could  carry 
two  hundred  weight  when  fifteen  years  of  age,  but 
now  feel  the  weakness  upon  me  from  the  strains.  I 
have  been  married  nearly  ten  years,  and  have  had 
four  children,  and  have  usually  wrought  till  with- 
in a  day  of  the  child's  birth.  Many  women  lose 
their  strength  early  from  overwork,  and  get  in- 
jured in  their  backs  and  legs." 

"Jane  Peacock,  aged  forty. — I  have  wrought 
in  the  bowds  of  the  earth  thirty-three  years. 
Have-  been  married  twenty-three  years,  and  had 
nine  children,  two  still  born,  and  think  they  were 
so  from  oppressive  work.  A  vast  number  of  wo- 
men have  dead  children  and  false  births,  which 
are  worse,  as  they  are  not  able  to  work  after  the 
latter.  It  is  only  horse  work,  and  ruins  the  wo- 


OF  THE  BRITISH  PEOPLE.        269 

men,  it  crushes  their  haunches,  bends  their  ancles, 
and  makes  them  old  women  at  forty. 

"  Isabel  Wilson,  aged  forty-five. — When  on  St. 
John's  work  I  was  a  carrier  of  coals,  which  caused 
me  to  miscarry  five  times,  from  the  strains,  and  I 
was  very  ill  after  each. 

"  Elizabeth  M'Neil. — I  knew  a  woman  who 
came  up,  and  the  child  was  born  in  the  field  next 
the  coal-hill.  Women  frequently  miscarry  below, 
and  suffer  much  after. 

"  Jane  Wood. — The  severe  work  causes  wo- 
men much  trouble.  They  frequently  have  pre- 
mature births.  My  neighbour,  Jenny  M'Donald, 
has  lain  ill  for  six  months,  and  William  King's 
wife  lately  died  from  miscarriage,  and  a  vast 
number  of  women  suffer  from  similar  causes." 

The  Report  states  that  all  the  married  women 
examined,  (and  they  were  many,}  relate  their  expe- 
rience to  the  same  purport.  The  Herald  inquires 
"  if  it  may  not  be  asked,  without  exaggeration, 
whether  such  a  system  can  be  regarded  as  any 
thing  less  than  murderous  ?" 

"  In  fact,"  says  a  very  intelligent  witness,  Mr. 
William  Hunter,  the  mining  foreman  of  Ormiston 
colliery,  "  women  always  did  the  lifting,  or  heavy 
part  of  the  work,  and  neither  they  nor  the  chil- 
dren were  treated  like  human  beings,  nor  are  they 
where  they  are  employed.  Females  submit  to 
work  in  places  where  no  man,  or  even  lad  could 
be  got  to  labour  in  :  they  work  on  bad  roads,  up 
to  their  knees  in  water,  in  a  posture  nearly  dou- 
23* 


270  SUFFERING    AND    CRIME 

ble.  They  are  below  till  the  last  stage  of  preg- 
nancy. They  have  swelled  haunches  and  ancles, 
and  are  prematurely  brought  to  the  grave,  or, 
what  is  worse,  a  lingering  existence.'' 

"  In  surveying  the  workings  of  an  extensive 
colliery  under  ground,"  says  Robert  Bald,  Esq., 
the  eminent  coal  viewer,  "  a  married  woman  came 
forward,  groaning  under  an  excessive  weight  of 
coals,  trembling  in  every  nerve,  and  almost  una- 
ble to  keep  her  knees  from  sinking  under  her. 
On  coming  up  she  said,  in  a  plaintive  and  melan- 
choly voice, '  Oh,  sir,  this  is  sore,  sore,  sore  work. 
I  wish  to  God  that  the  first  woman  who  tried  to 
bear  coals  had  broken  her  back,  and  never  would 
have  tried  it  again.' 

"  Now  when  the  nature  of  this  horrible  labour 
is  taken  into  consideration,  the  extreme  severity, 
its  regular  duration  of  from  twelve  to  fourteen 
hours  daily,  which,  and  once  a  week,  as  in  the  in- 
stance of  J.  Gumming,  is  extended  through  the 
whole  of  the  night ;  the  damp,  heated,  and  un- 
wholesome atmosphere,  in  which  the  work  is  car- 
ried on  ;  the  tender  age,  and  sex  of  the  workers  ; 
when  it  is  considered  that  such  labour  is  perform- 
ed, not  in  isolated  instances  selected  to  excite 
compassion,  but  that  it  may  be  regarded  as  the 
type  of  the  every-day  existence  of  hundreds  of 
our  fellow  creatures — a  picture  is  presented  of 
deadly  physical  oppression,  and  systematic  slav- 
ery, of  which  I  conscientiously  believe  no  one 


OF  THE  BRITISH  PEOPLE.        271 

unacquainted  with  such  facts  would  credit  the 
existence  in  the  British  dominions." 

But  all  this  accumulation  of  torture  and  mur- 
derous outrage  is  not  the  worst  part  of  the  pic- 
ture. There  is  a  hunger  of  spirit  worse  than 
starvation — a  nakedness  of  soul  more  repulsive 
than  that  of  the  body — a  bondage  of  the  spirit ' 
worse  than  the  chain  of  the  limbs — a  darkness  of 
intellect  gloomier  than  these  deep  caverns  where 
the  light  of  heaven  never  shines  on  the  dull  and 
deadened. 

This  leads  us  to  consider — 

The  Intellectual  and  Moral  Degradation  of 
the  Colliers. — We  would  most  gladly  pass  by  this 
part  of  the  subject,  but  truth  requires  us  not  to  be 
silent.  But  we  shall  be  as  brief  as  possible,  and 
use  chiefly  the  language  of  the  Commissioners. 
Said  the  Bishop  of  Norwich,  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  "  To  this  horrible  physical  toil  extorted 
from  them,  is  superadded  the  moral  degradation 
to  which  these  females  are  from  their  earliest 
years  exposed — associated  as  they  are  with  the 
lowest  profligacy  and  the  grossest  sensuality." 

"  All  classes  of  witnesses,"  the  Report  tells  us, 
"  bear  the  strongest  testimony  to  the  immoral  ef- 
fects of  the  practice  of  females  working  in  the 
mines."  In  the  southern  part  of  the  West  Riding 
of  Yorkshire,  in  great  numbers  of  the  coal-pits, 
the  men  work  in  a  state  of  perfect  nakedness,  and 
are  in  this  state  assisted  by  females  of  all  ages, 
from  girls  of  six  years  old  to  women  of  twenty- 


272  SUFFERING    AND    CRIME 

one,  these  females  being  themselves  quite  naked 
down  to  the  waist/' 

Patience  Kershaw,  examined  by  Mr.  Scriven, 
says,  "  The  boys  take  liberties  with  me  some- 
times ;  they  pull  me  about.  I  am  the  only  girl 
in  the  pit.  There  are  twenty  boys,  and  fifteen 
men.  All  the  men  are  naked" 

In  all  the  mines  this  indecency  prevails  to  a 
degree  very  slightly  mitigated  in  shamelessness. 
Mr.  Thorneley,  a  magistrate  near  Barnsley,  says  : 

"  I  have  had  forty  years  experience  in  the  man- 
agement of  collieries.  The  system  of  having  fe- 
males to  work  in  coal-pits  prevails  generally  in 
this  neighbourhood.  I  consider  it  to  be  a  most 
awfully  demoralising  practice.  The  youths  of 
both  sexes  work  often  in  a  half-naked  state,  and 
the  passions  are  excited  before  they  arrive  at  pu- 
berty. Sexual  intercourse  frequently  occurs  in 
consequence.  Cases  of  bastardy  frequently  also 
occur  ;  and  I  am  decidedly  of  opinion  that  women 
brought  up  in  this  way  lay  aside  all  modesty,  and 
scarcely  know  what  it  is  but  by  name.  Another 
injurious  effect  arises  from  the  modern  construc- 
tion of  cottages,  where  the  father,  mother,  and 
children  are  all  huddled  together  in  one  bed-room ; 
this  tends  to  still  more  demoralization." 

On  such  disgusting  details  we  will  not  dwell. 
No  doubt  can  remain  in  the  mind  of  any  person 
who  reads  the  report,  that  to  look  for  chastity 
among  such  persons  would  be  a  fruitless  under- 
taking. The  lamentable  fact  is  also  proved,  that 


OF    THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  273 

the  depravity  of  females  far  exceeds  even  that  of 
the  men. 

The  assertion  needs  no  proof,  that  where  the 
bodies  of  men  are  left  imcared  for,  their  souls  are 
neglected.  Baxter  said,  "  starving  men  are  poor 
theologians."  The  commissioners  tell  us,  that 
they  examined  large  numbers  of  young  persons, 
taken  indiscriminately,  in  .regard  to  their  know- 
ledge of  religion:  I  make  the  following  extracts 
to  show  the  result.  In  a  church  school,  which 
the  commissioners  praise  as  superior  to  many,  no 
one  in  reading  the  miracle  of  the  draft  of  fishes, 
knew  the  meaning  of  the  words  "  shores,"  "  abun- 
dance," or  :'  prophecies."  One  boy  said  the  dis- 
ciples were  the  people  who  did  not  go  up  to  Jeru- 
salem. 

"  Elizabeth  Day,  a  girl  of  seventeen. — I  don't 
go  to  Sunday  school.  The  truth  is,  we  are  con- 
fined bad  enough  on  week  days,  and  want  to  walk 
about  on  Sundays.  I  can't  read  at  all.  Jesus 
Christ  was  Adam's  son,  and  they  nailed  him  on 
a  tree ;  but  I  don't  rightly  understand  these 
things." 

"William  Beaver,  aged  sixteen.— The  Lord 
made  the  world.  He  sent  Adam  and  Eve  on  earth 
to  save  sinners.  I  have  heard  of  the  Saviour ;  he 
was  a  good  man,  but  he  did  not  die  here.  I  think 
Ireland  is  a  town  as  big  as  Barnsley,  where  there 
is  plenty  of  potatoes  and  lots  of  bullocks/' 

"  Ann  Eggley,  aged  eighteen. — I  have  heard  of 
Christ  performing  miracles,  but  I  don't  know  what 


274  SUFFERING    AND    CRIME 

sort  of  things  they  were.  He  died  by  their  pour- 
ing fire  and  brimstone  down  his  throat.  I  think 
I  once  did  hear  that  he  was  nailed  to  a  cross. 
Three  times  ten  make  twenty.  There  are  four- 
teen months  in  the  year,  but  I  don't  know  how 
many  weeks  there  are." 

"Bessy  Bailey,  aged  fifteen. — Jesus  Christ  died 
for  his  son  to  be  saved.  I  don't  know  who  the 
apostles  were.  I  don't  know  what  Ireland  is, 
whether  it  is  a  country  or  a  town." 

"Elizabeth  Eggley,  aged  sixteen. — I  cannot 
read.  I  do  not  know  my  letters.  I  don't  know 
who  Jesus  Christ  was.  I  never  heard  of  Adam 
either.  I  never  heard  about  them  at  all.  I  have 
often  been  obliged  to  stop  in  bed  all  Sunday  to  rest 
myself." 

This  is  no  one-sided  view.  The  same  state  of 
things  prevails  throughout  the  numerous  coal 
mines  in  Yorkshire,  Lancaster,  Cheshire,  South 
Wales,  and  the  east  of  Scotland ;  and  in  all  the 
coal  mines  of  Great  Britain  a  slavery  and  a  degra- 
dation exists,  unequalled  in  any  other  land.  Nor 
is  the  number  of  its  victims  small.  "  Thousands 
and  tens  of  thousands  of  children}''  says  the  Earl 
of  Winchelsea,  "  have  been  destroyed  in  conse- 
quence of  being  compelled  thus  to  breathe  an  at- 
mosphere unfit  for  preservation  of  health."  In 
Christian  England  these  thousands  of  tender 
children  are  condemned  to  a  toil  which  in  Austria 
and  other  European  states  is  seldom,  if  ever,  im- 
posed on  any  but  criminals  ;  and  even  they  are 


OP  THE  BRITISH  PEOPLE.         275 

treated  with  greater  humanity.  The  Siberian 
exiles  too,  are  in  a  condition  far  preferable  to  the 
free  miners  of  England. 

It  is  vain  to  say,  that  because  this  terrible  state 
of  things  has  been  so  little  known  before,  the  En- 
glish government  are  not  to  blame  for  it.  I  would 
reply  that  it  has  been  known  before:  the  facts 
have  been  told  by  individuals.  But  such  state- 
ments have  hitherto  either  been  disregarded  or 
disbelieved.  In  my  first  work  on  England  I  spoke 
of  the  wretched  condition  of  the  colliers ;  for  at 
the  time  it  was  not  unknown  to  me.  I  withheld 
in  that  work  the  darkest  shades  in  many  pictures 
I  drew — for  two  reasons. 

The  real  condition  of  the  working  classes  of 
Great  Britain  was  in  a  great  measure  unknown 
both  in  America  and  England  ;  and  I  remembered 
that  I  was  not  only  the  first  American  who  had 
spoken  so  freely  of  the  wrongs  of  England,  but  I 
was  an  author  unknown  to  the  world,  and  I  did 
not  wish  to  lay  too  heavy  a  tax  upon  the  credulity 
of  my  readers.  For  exposing  a  part  only  of  the 
truth,  I  was  grossly  abused  by  the  ignorant  con- 
ceited slaves  of  party,  who,  on  mounting  the  edi- 
torial chair  of  a  vile  print,  use  the  royal  pronoun 
as  imposingly  as  though  they  spoke  the  senti- 
ments of  half  the  world — by  silk  stockened  wri- 
ters of  romance,  who  were  qualified  to  give  no 
opinion  of  any  matter  that  related  to  humanity, 
simply  because  they  knew  nothing  about  it; — 
and  even  by  female  editors  and  contributors  of 


276  SUFFERING    AND    CRIME 

namby  pamby  magazines,  it  was  declared  I  had 
exaggerated  the  sufferings  and  wrongs  of  the  poor 
of  England,  not  even  adding  the  modest  qualifica- 
tion "  in  their  opinion"  Noble  critics  these,  surely, 
upon  the  condition  of  the  poor  of  a  land  which 
they  visited,  and  it  appears,  only  to  pet  a  profli- 
gate aristocracy,  who  have  caused  this  same 
misery  of  which  I  spoke.  Some  of  these  persons 
who  have  been  so  kind  as  to  correct  my  mistakes 
by  exposing  their  own  ignorance,  were  in  Eng- 
land, the  same  summer  with  myself.  And  while 
their  pretty  feet  were  pressing  the  winter  carpets 
of  the  halls  of  the  aristocracy,  they  had  made 
such  a  death  struggle  to  enter,  I  happened  either 
from  humanity  or  curiosity — call  it  which  you 
please,  to  be  exploring  the  coal  mines  of  Lanca- 
shire, and  the  factories  and  lanes  of  Preston,  Man- 
chester and  Leeds.  Some  of  these  travellers  have 
told  us  what  they  saw — they  have  described 
soirees,  balls,  and  all  kinds  of  fashionable  dissipa- 
tion, enough  of  which  I  witnessed  to  be  disgusted 
with  it  all,  and  with  descriptions  of  which  I  might 
have  filled  two  volumes  and  peddled  out  the 
leavings  to  fashionable  magazines,  had  I  cared 
more  for  the  esteem  of  the  beau  monde,  than  of 
the  humane  and  the  philanthropic. 

But  to  return.  It  is  impossible  such  horrid 
barbarities  could  be  perpetrated  in  a  country  like 
•England,  and  not  be  known  to  multitudes.  They 
were  most  likely  unknown  to  the  aristocracy  and 
fashionable  circles  in  the  metropolis — to  the  great 


OF    THE    BRITISH    PEOPLE.  277 

pleasure-seeking  world  of  London ;  for  these 
classes  meddle  no  more  than  is  necessary  with  the 
affairs  of  the  poor.  "It  is,"  says  Blackwood's 
Magazine,  "nauseous  and  emetical  to  such  persons 
to  be  told  that  our  fellow  subjects  starve  outside 
our  gates :  such  recitals  of  domestic  misery  inter- 
fere with  the  process  of  digestion,  and  like  the  sad 
realities  of  another  place  should  not  be  mentioned 
in  the  hearing  of  ears  polite.  Nothing  can  be 
more  vulgar,  uninteresting  and  anti-sentimental, 
than  the  distresses  of  Hicks,  Higgins,  Figgins  and 
Stubbs,  and  all  weavers  and  others,  who  are 
neither  rebels  nor  refugees — who  are  vulgar 
enough  to  work  if  they  can  get  it — who  wear  no 
bristles  under  their  noses  and  lips,  and  who  have 
no  names  ending  in  '  rinskV  " 

But  whether  the  legislators  of  England  knew 
these  facts  or  not,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  this 
damning  slavery  which  stamps  the  condition  of 
the  lower  classes  in  Great  Britain,  is  the  result  of 
unjust  laws,  and  an  oppressive  system  of  Govern- 
ment, by  which  the  helpless  poor  man  is  robbed 
of  the  fruits  of  his  hard  toil.  It  is  also  true  that 
after  a  full  investigation  of  the  facts/  Parliament 
refused  to  provide  a  remedy,  and  indefinitely 
postponed  the  whole  matter. 

As  investigation  goes  on.  and  one  abuse  after 
another  is  exposed,  Englishmen  profess  great 
surprise  at  such  unlooked  for  developments ! 
They  shock  all  men  who  have  a  spark  of  human- 
ity left,  but  they  surprise  no  one  who  is  gifted 
VOL.  i.  24 


278  SUFFERING    AND    CRIME. 

with  sagacity  enough  to  discover  that  these  terrible 
sufferings  are  produced  legitimately  and  of  neces- 
sity by  the  tyranny  of  the  government.  This 
grand  cause  is  adequate  to  the  production  of  more 
misery  and  crime  than  have  yet  been  brought  to 
light.  Let  the  investigation  go  on.  Let  the 
curtain  which  has  so  long  veiled  the  distress  and 
degradation  of  the  slave  classes,  from  the  gaze  of 
the  aristocracy  be  lifted,  and  let  them  behold  the 
fearful  ruin  they  have  brought  on  starving  mil- 
lions, so  that  they  be  not  taken  by  surprize  when 
they  find  themselves  visited  by  the  ISSUE. 


END    OF   FIRST   VOL. 


